Language Lessons is a show responding to both the artist’s experience learning Hebrew and the fact that Gallery 1889 is located within a language school serving the needs of migrants and refugees.

Several art pieces express how unfamiliar alphabets can at first be disorientating and how in both art and language we are able gradually to find meaning from abstract shapes. The works speak about the disconnection of leaving familiar places and having to make new connections. That could be a literal departure from one’s homeland or, as for the artist, may be a more internal journey involving leaving a career and professional community to move to a new way of living in the world.

Other pieces look at our roots and the roots of language, the migratory experiences of immigrants and the words applied to them by themselves and by others. The artists also looks at the words used to describe and form our identity.

Helen Conway is a local artist based in St.Helens, Merseyside. As a former barrister and Judge working in the areas of immigration and family law her art work naturally gravitates to themes related to people experiencing upheaval or struggle and to storytelling and forms of self-expression. Her art is inspired by the graffiti found in the inner city areas where different cultures often mingle together. She works in acrylics on textiles and paper. As a coach to both lawyers and artists, she works to help others create not only art but new lives.