J. J. Hellerman combines expanded printmaking and installation techniques to interrogate how mechanisms of display and communication shape ideological mythologies. Constructing volatile armatures to activate constellations of found and fabricated imagery and/or text, Hellerman represents the archive as a form of theater or agora: an artificial stage of remembering and being remembered.

Hellerman’s installations combine permanent materials (steel and plastic) with vulnerable matter (melting ice and exposed wiring). These disparate materials, connected through an assortment of ad-hoc joints and junctions, create precarious networks characterized by systemic insecurity. By materializing the volatile architectures of the archive, Hellerman shifts focus from content to form. Her absurd, sometimes ludicrous reflections of display and communication mechanisms disturb any façade of objectivity in archival systems and information structures. In this satire, Hellerman questions the mechanics of creating and institutionalizing collective memory, exposing a latent agency in the mechanisms by which political myths are formed.

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Hellerman gained her M.A. in Print from the Royal College of Art after graduating from Georgetown University with a double-major in Government and Classical Languages. She is based in London.