Tuesday, March 9, 2010

the departed


My exhibition 'the departed' will be opened next Tuesday 16 March (6-8pm) by art critic and writer Andrew Frost at Hardware Gallery. Continues to 1 April. (Tues-Sat 11-5pm).
Hope to see you there.

As humans, we are not immune to the loss experienced in relationships. In 'the departed', Melanie Boreham leads the audience through many of her own trials as she transforms the gallery into an intimate repository for her own harbored loss. Across a variety of disciplines including sculptural installations, video, painting and textiles, we are confronted with the destabilising nature of separation through the medium of human hair.

The major installation inhabiting the gallery 'Forest of the inside' is composed of a myriad of black trees entirely made of human hair, representative of individuals. They float in the air at various levels - some closer, others further - creating a space that is difficult to circulate.

Boreham uses human hair, a grossly intimate material, as a metaphor to examine the effects of separation. The continual growth and severing of our hair is a mimetic act of the often destructive pattern of our human relationships. Just as we are constantly cutting our hair, our relationships are constantly evolving and breaking down.