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 Rubicon ARI February 2018

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Persistence/Resistance…Rubicon ARI Opening Wednesday February 7th, 2018
For the last four yours I have been working with concepts of politics and art openly treading the fine line between art and polemic in exhibitions, articles,  drawings and in photos. I have been making installations of looping wire, videos and lately other materials and objects like cushions. Beginning with “It is right to protest” a 40 i-Pad installation for my end of year VCA MCA exhibition I presented crossing electrical wires exposed, for the message of interconnection, electricity and planning. The videos were taken by myself at protests I attended, not as an observer, but as a participant. I have . since used photographs, fabric banners paintings, and cushions in installations.
The media I use, including the tangled wires and cords,  is an inquiry into the common iphone, video, as memory, or as bypass. In a world of precipitous climate denial and incomprehensible mistreatment of refugees … I am walking the fine line between art and polemic inviting the question of that line. The self-portrait collage inserts that questioning in a painterly form. The horsefly that comes back is an artistic investigation into the belief that until we can fundamentally change the system of power, through strikes, protests and taking our streets.

Melanie Joy is a Melbourne based artist whose practice is predominantly installation based. Her history of displacement and self exile and her burning antagonism to injustice makes her art tread a fine line between polemics and investigation.

Moreland Summer Show: Noel Counihan Commemorative Award

My entry   “Always protest”  has been shortlisted for the Noel Counihan Commemorative Art Award.

Opening: Thursday 9 November, 6 – 8 pm

The Counihan Gallery In Brunswick’s annual Moreland Summer Show.

Moreland Summer Show: Noel Counihan Commemorative Award

Exhibition

Friday 10 November – Saturday 9 December

Opening: Thursday 9 November, 6 – 8 pm

The Counihan Gallery In Brunswick is pleased to announce the inaugural Noel Counihan Commemorative Art Award exhibition.

To be awarded annually, the Noel Counihan Commemorative Award will recognise an outstanding contemporary artwork by an artist who engages with social, political, cultural or environmental subjects.

This year’s theme is PEOPLE – POLITICS – PROTEST.

The 2017 prize is a tailored Professional Development package to the value of $3000. The winner will be announced at the opening of the exhibition on Thursday 9 November.

Comfortable Yet?

Exhibition was from 15th September – 7 Octoberfullsizeoutput_4f81

Can you sit amongst the cushions until the world burns and the refugees die at sea? Till Trump burns Asia with a nuclear bomb? Of course not! Most of us can’t. You are looking at the somewhat unsettling beauty of the burnt Grampian forests, a fire that swept through the mountains and destroyed most in its wake. At the same time as climate denial increases and Trump and Turnbull, turn up the volume of racism and anti-worker laws, ordinary people take to the streets to protest about the incomprehensible levels of cruelty. I am with them. I use images, and memories to create installations, videos, photos and banners to express where I stand. Never forget, always act, always record.

 

Short Biography

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Melanie’s work is a multimedia mix of installation, photography, painting and printed material. Her iPad installations show collective outcries in tangles of  wires,  plugs, and looping scenes catching anger and determination with words on banners, colours of flags, and the interaction of protesters. Currently Melanie is printing these scenes in unusual ways, banners and cushions.

Melanie has a Master in the History and Philosophy of Science from Melbourne University, and a Master in Contemporary Art from the VCA. 

 

Politics and art again

No art floats untied to its time. Even abstract art gained its freedom to extract itself through untying links. Behind these walls we indulge (rightfully) in art that that feasts the eyes, whilst outside these walls the excluded, refugees, the poor, the communities deemed unfit by police and state, are strangled. The artist’s role is never to forget this and always to know this, but more to do something about it.

Exhibition Persistence/Resistance at Rubicon Ari February 2018

In this space I immerse myself in the tangled problems of art politics and polemics. I remain with the question but i think it was an interesting one. These photos taken by Patricia J Casten look at my exhibition from am outsiders eyes. I enjoyed dwelling with her with her interpretation of my exhibition.