‘Tracing a political way of life in Scotland’s archives: Helen Biggar’s art as activism’

Description

Born in Glasgow in 1909, artist Helen Biggar was a sculptor, filmmaker, political organiser, and theatre designer whose socialist and pacifist beliefs deeply influenced her art. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1925-32, where she specialised in sculpture and formed numerous friendships and collaborations. Beyond Scotland her artwork and activism are largely unseen, arguably an impact of her diverse pursuits as well as her early passing and barriers faced because of gender and disability. This paper will present a selection of Biggar’s artworks to convey how her anti-war politics propelled her art and organising forward, and how she responded to rising fascism in the 1930s and the Second World War (1939 – 1945). Under discussion will be the agitprop film Hell Unltd (1936) made with film-maker Norman McLaren, and her documentary Challenge to Fascism: Glasgow’s May Day (1938). Her films will be contrasted with the humanist sentiment of her sculptures such as Mamie Biggar (1937) and Mother & Child (1943). Biggar’s commitment to collaborative working will be presented as a source of inspiration, counterintuitive to the individualistic structures of art and art history. In politically urgent times, activist practitioners such as Birmingham Film and Video Workshop, and curator Jenny Brownrigg, have sought to make Biggar’s practice visible through art works and exhibitions that drew on Scotland’s publicly accessible archives. My paper will seek to expand on how revisiting her work today, through the traces that remain, can act as inspiration, affirmation and agitation for contemporary artistic activism.

Period	12 Nov 2025
Held at	Henry Moore Institute, United Kingdom