Coat of Arms 2023

Helvi Apted, Coat of Arms (installation) 2023, manufactured felt (made from recycled textiles), thread, polyfill. Martyn Myer Arena, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne/Naarm. Photos: Simon Strong

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Anthro-Ponder, 2025

Felt and wool skulls and ceramic alcoves exploring deep-time, human experience, strife and reflection.

Helvi received the R.L. Foote Design Studio Award in 2023. This is a showcase of the outcomes of this residency experience.

Artist Statement

In Anthro-Ponder, I present five textile skulls mounted above clay huts, ceramic alcoves impressed with fabric memories, and the experimental tiles and drawings that shaped the development of these artworks. This residency gave me space to bring clay into my textile practice—a material evolution I am pleased to share in this exhibition.

These works reflect on human nature generally, and on our core drivers as individuals.[1] They have been shaped by time spent in reflection, listening to political commentary on world events and observing changes in our environment. As I worked, I asked myself: why are we like this? What shapes our habits, our logic, our collective behaviour, and our failure to live up to our aspirations for ourselves.

I model the skull sculptures after hominin ancestors—genetic relatives of Homo sapiens. Made from felt and raw wool, they exist between scientific specimens and symbols of death, while holding an alive and familiar presence. Some are larger than homo sapiens skulls, others smaller. They exist as studies of what makes us human. They were made by compacting raw wool onto sewn felt forms, building creatures that sit between animal and human.

Each skull rests above a hand-built ceramic base—a hovel that anchors floating thought to earth. These bases carry fiber impressions pushed deep into the clay. They reference early dwellings and the cave systems our ancestors navigated.[2] Wrapped cords travel between skull and base like neural pathways, connecting mind to foundation.

We can think about the "archetypal hut" as humanity's first dwelling, a space that exists between physical shelter and symbolic meaning.[3] These ceramic hovels echo this duality: they protect, by creating a foundation for the textile sculptures, while recalling early human shelters, pathways of evolution and personal journey.

The collection of ceramic alcoves of hand-built clay refer to contemplation. These recessed forms, some marked with fabric memories, others rebound with cord, offer modest spaces for reflection —where one state of mind or thought shifts to another. During the residency, I experimented with pressing different fibres into clay: jute, paper coil, yarn and rope. This tension between soft textile memory and hard clay permanence was a key area of material exploration.

These pieces sit in the tension between ancestral memory, geological time and contemporary drivers. Through material investigation—soft wool, felt and fired clay—I explore how our evolutionary inheritance shapes consciousness in an increasingly unstable world.

Exhibition Details

November 8-22, 2025

R.L. Foote Design Studio Gallery

1 Parslow Street, Clifton Hill

Opening: November 8, 2025, 2-4pm

Photos Tobias Titz

[1] Yuval N. Harari, with David Casanave, The Birth of Humankind, ed. by David Vandermeulen (Jonathan Cape, 2020).

[2] Berger, Lee and John Hawks. Cave of Bones: A True Story of Discovery, Adventure, and Human Origins. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2023.

[3] Irem Hafiz, ‘Allegories of the Primitive Hut’, ADAMarts, 4 (2023), pp. 74–89.

Untitled (skull family group) 2025

Untitled (two tone skull), 2025, wool (raw), felt (synthetic), thread, aluminium wire, raku clay, glaze, 39 X 19 X 16

Untitled (pearl skull), 2025, wool (raw), felt (synthetic), thread, gold thread, pins, beads, deer leather, aluminium wire, white raku clay, glaze, 36 X 23 X 20

Untitled (spider weave skull), 2025, wool (raw), felt (synthetic), thread, aluminium wire, raku clay, glaze, 43 X 26 X 23

Untitled (familiar skull) 2025, Wool (raw), felt (synthetic), thread, aluminium wire, white raku clay, glaze, 51 X 25 X 26.

Untitled (owl skull), 2024-5, wool (raw), felt (synthetic), thread, cowhide, aluminium wire, raku clay, glaze, 33 X 18 X 17

Installation view

Detail of installation table showing drawings, materials and samples

Alcove collection, 2024-5, stoneware, glaze, dimensions various.

Alcove collection, 2024-5, stoneware, glaze, leather, jute

Ropeway tiles (two parts), 2025, Fired stoneware, 30 X 43 X 1

Voice Referendum Result, 2024

Helvi Apted, Voice Referendum Result, 2024. Saddle felt (wool, viscose), cotton thread, wire, plinth, white paint, pencil, printed digital drawing, nails (sculpture) 130 x 65 x 65cm (drawing) 21 x 59cm. Installed fortyfivedownstairs. Photo Astrid Mulder.