AN EXHIBITION OF ARTWORK BY MEL JORDAN
Preparing to exhibit.
Wrapped By Melanie Jordan
I collect and have done so for a considerable portion of my life. My hoard includes fabrics, china, cacti, old tins, rusty fragments, and other found or discarded objects. It is the disparate archive of rusty artifacts discovered in my garden,( a now disused plant nursery) that has provided the inspiration for my artwork. Key to my practice has been fusing contrasting material elements, namely rusty metal implements, with fine linen pieces. By combining brutal practicality with the delicate ornamental, I have created juxtapositions of both substance and function, while keeping an essence of the history and heritage. Rust has a basic primal quality that evokes a sense of ruin, decay and abandonment, while simultaneously celebrating the capacity of nature to re- form itself. It occupies the interface between manmade and the natural world, thus providing huge artistic potential.
Inspired by artist Judith Scott, I have been experimenting with wrapping and binding the rusting items .Through Experimentation with natural accelerants such as salt water, tea, lemon juice and vinegar the process of rust pigmentation was explored. By enabling the staining to seep through the fabric subtle variations of depth and tone were created that will continue to develop over time.
In exhibiting the pieces at The Old Nursery, there is a feeling of returning the items to where it all began, coming full circle in a sense. To expand on this work further I propose to wrap and install found objects in Kings Wood Challock as part of The Stour Valley Creative Partnership.
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