Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures at The Hepworth Wakefield
Right at the entrance to Life Pleasures, you’re hit with the overwhelming scent and presence of Cacao (1994): a monumental fountain filled with 800kg of bubbling milk chocolate. The sound, the smell, the sheer physicality of it sets the tone for the whole exhibition. It’s sensuous, immersive, and just a little bit too much — pure Helen Chadwick.
While I was there, a gallery assistant stirred the chocolate to stop it from separating. She commented on how the rich, enticing smell of Cacao in the first room starkly contrasts with the sour fermentation bubbling away in Carcass (1986), shown towards the end of the exhibition. And she was right — that contrast between seduction and decay is key to the show.
I was mesmerised by Carcass. Which isn’t something I expected to say about a two-metre high tower of rotting food waste. At the top, the pile is recognisably food. In the middle, it compresses into more abstract bands of colour, and by the bottom, it’s lost all form, it has become a bubbling mush. The fermentation process produces little bubbles that travel up through the layers like breath rising in a body. It felt alive. In fact, it was alive. Who knew decomposition could be so beautiful?
The layout of the exhibition is an excellent mix of large-scale works and smaller, quieter pieces that still pack a punch. It flows well and feels generous, with space to take things in at your own pace.
This was my first time seeing Piss Flowers (1991–92) in person, and they completely surprised me. If you didn’t know their origin story — Chadwick and her partner urinating into snow packed into flower-shaped moulds — you’d never guess. The resulting bronze sculptures are delicate, sensual, and strange. Gleaming white, they resemble frozen blooms or alien fossils. There’s something subversively tender about them.
Chadwick created these during a residency in Canada, a period shaped by her grief over the AIDS crisis and her interest in how bodies, nature and society intertwine. She wanted to explore relationships between host and virus, individual and landscape, and the uneasy boundaries between the two. That tension is visible throughout the show.
Across sculpture, photography, installation and performance, Chadwick’s work bursts with physicality. She revelled in the sensuous and the abject, combining traditional techniques with unconventional materials like chocolate, urine, flowers, meat, oil, and compost. Her works don’t just break taboos around what’s considered ‘beautiful’, they gleefully stomp on them.
What strikes me most is how much joy there is here. Despite the seriousness of her themes — mortality, decay, sexuality, disease — Chadwick’s art is mischievous and full of life. Her use of materials is clever, but never cold. She was clearly having fun, and that energy is infectious.
Life Pleasures is the first major retrospective of Helen Chadwick’s work in over 25 years, and it’s long overdue. Her influence on the Young British Artists is clear, but her work stands firmly on its own terms — tender, unruly, and utterly unforgettable.
I left feeling fascinated by her mind and her methods. Every piece in this show has stuck with me. Helen Chadwick didn’t just make art — she made matter sing.
Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures continues at The Hepworth Wakefield until 26th October 2025.