Through an expanded approach to writing and research Mel's practice incorporates experimental, collaborative and interdisciplinary methods to investigate themes of place, ownership, utopias and our individual and collective interactions with landscapes (both built and natural). This takes the form of writing or rendered imagery, often distributed through artists books and pamphlets, of which two pieces are held in the collections of the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Growing up in the Dales and Cumbria, Mel graduated from Manchester School of Art in 2019, was awarded Young Cumbrian Artist of the Year in 2020. She moved to Dublin in autumn 2021 to study for her Masters in Art.
WORK
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‘Shift’ (2021)
Printed triptych of imagined places, created using CAD and CGI.
'Shift' takes the motifs of the landscapes within the estuary and lets them unfold in an otherworldly non-space, a digital landscape that could be both utopia and dystopia. Growing from a series of writings, drawings and photographs gathered during the research trip and over the following month, the series works as a method of combining varied research sources into hypothetical spaces that continue to reference the artist's interest in sci-fi, place and the unique circumstances of Cumbria (industrial, natural and social).