Helen Pynor’s photographic series ‘Milk’ presents images of Indigenous Australian plants that have been used medicinally for thousands of years by the Dharawal people of southern Sydney and the Illawarra region. The plants, complete with root systems, float in a watery medium with inky, ambiguous liquids that gradually unfurl and disperse.
Pynor’s work is frequently developed during in-depth residencies in scientific and clinical institutions, most recently The Francis Crick Institute, London, The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, and The Heart and Lung Transplant Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.
Pynor holds a Bachelor of Science (1st Class Hons) (Macquarie University), a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney), and a cross-disciplinary PhD (Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney) that drew together her dual backgrounds. She has exhibited widely nationally and internationally including at The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, The National Centre for Contemporary Art, Russia, FACT – Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool UK, Science Gallery Dublin, Science Gallery London, The Australian Centre for Photography, Wellcome Collection, London, The Old Operating Theatre, London, Ars Electronica, Linz, and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.