Princess Belsize Dollar – an adidas Original

If you happen to be strolling through the foyer of the adidas London HQ, you could take the opportunity to lighten your load for a bit and perch on one of the bespoke ‘adidas’ chairs created by multifaceted artist Helen Benigson. Fresh from her MA at the Slade, Helen is currently doing a year-long residency on the LUX Associate Artist Program.

We took the liberty of sending a love enquiry to Helen via her website, and were greeted by one her formidable personas:

This is Princess Belsize Dollar. I am a rapper, sushi addict, activist, and lover.

Are you always Princess Belsize Dollar, sometimes Helen Benigson, how does this work?

Being a video artist and rapper, having two identities helps me decipher what I am making / behaving like each day! However, for both my artistic and performance characters, I am interested in cyberspace, occupied territories, the exploration of identity, and supermarkets.

Can you tell us about the recent work for the adidas Originals campaign?

I produced some beautiful chairs for the head-office at adidas. I covered the chairs in my own print, a print taken from one of my videos. The chairs are vibrant, feminine and saturated!
Chloe Richardson (My Stylist Says) introduced me to adidas and from there the relationship developed. After I made the chairs, adidas invited me to create a photobooth at one of their big events, Streetfest. The photobooth was also covered in my print and everyone got to have their photo taken in my world!

The chairs are beautifully upholstered and the fabric incorporates the trefoil in its pattern. It’s both striking and vivid. How did you settle upon this design?

The inspiration for the chairs directly came from the video “Saturation Between My Legs”. This video is inspired by Luce Irigaray, an amazing feminist philosopher and theorist. The video was show in a conference in her honor last year.

So are you an adidas fan? I’ve seen those teddy bear high tops you’ve been sportin’!

I’m a big fan of adidas, I love, love, love all the Jeremy Scott, yes love the teddy bears the most!

[laughs]

So what’s next in the royal calendar?

I have a big exhibition coming up in Farnham at the James Hockey and Foyer Gallery, which is a huge, public gallery. I am also currently making a video about poker players and insomnia!

Helen, Princess, you both sure have a lot on your plate. Thanks for taking the time to fill us in on the details. For those interested to see the full scale of her work, jump on over to her website and dig around the art and mind of Helen Benigson.

written by Benji Blunt