Award winning sculptor Joy Heylen has returned from representing Australia in Egypt at the World Youth Forum, Reviving Humanity Sculpture Symposium. Major award winner Joy was selected along with a dynamic team of more than 70 global sculptors in representing their countries to create a memorial in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt.
The Reviving Humanity Memorial creative concept was designed by Shosha Aboulkheir of Shosha Kamal Design Studio, Cairo. The memorial has been created as a legacy to victims of terrorism and by order of the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has become a foundation to assist victims of terrorism.
The sculpture was created utilising 400 meters of copper wire and will be permanently exhibited in Sharm El Sheik. Joy’s site-specific design for the Reviving Humanity Memorial was a response to the beauty, sound and textures of Egypt. Woven together in simplicity, her design creates new patterns for positive change through the fusion of all cultures. It centers around her perception of repetitive patterns in life which she believes is not just because the system of the universe is itself a pattern, but because patterns of behavior get repeated generation after generation unless they are broken, and new creative patterns are introduced. Joy’s woven features symbolize both the difficulties and potential of fusing modern and ancient cultures by force or consent in forming cultures’ individual identities.
Joy’s work is inventive with solid engineering, balancing concepts whilst pursuing the ideal of aesthetic purity. “As an artist, I am on a road of self-discovery; with life as the inspirational palette for contemplation. Mediums change and create frequencies for the journey to follow,” she says. Clearly a talented artist and passionate in her work, her journey of self-discovery has taken her across three countries, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, with works which encompass photography, fine art and sculpture. Within the scope of her art practice, she mentors young and emerging artists.
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