Melanie is a London-based conceptual artist with an architectural background, inspired by the quality of workmanship, attention to detail, and the tactile nature of work produced during the Arts & Crafts movement. Growing up in an idyllic village on the Kent coast, within sight of the French coastline, she considered herself European from a young age. Her architectural career facilitated travel and work around the UK, as well as to Dubai, Jordan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, providing the opportunity to live for a time in both Qatar and Morocco with her young family. She specializes in healthcare design, a sector with perhaps the most rules and regulations of any aspect of architecture, which challenges and delights her in equal measure.
However, the pull towards a more primal, raw mode of creation has been inherent for as long as she can remember. Social injustice has been a running theme throughout her travels and life: poverty, domestic violence, and inequality have been visceral. Art provides a way of processing those experiences and observations: the hopelessness, the frustration, and the rage. Raised as an inherent rule-follower, art allows her to explore and question societal rules. She stands in awe of human resilience: people endure unspeakable experiences that should have broken them beyond repair, yet they continue.
Comments