Melanie Jordan
Artist
Melanie Jordan
Melanie's art practice is very tactile and haptic, with thread-based crafts at its core. Such slow repetitive activities allow for reflective thought, being absorbing almost to the point of monotony. It is as though the boredom is a precursor to creativity. The process of making is embedded in Melanie’s work, and for her is as important as the outcome.
Melanie’s artwork pays attention to maternal ambivalence; the tension between the need to nurture, and feelings of entrapment in motherhood. Her work is informed by her personal perspective of being a mother of an adult with a learning disability, where the mother-child relationship becomes stuck in a dependent phase.
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Melanie has exhibited throughout the UK and internationally, including exhibitions in Vienna, Stockholm, and Berlin. She is an active member of arts organisation ArtCan and is part of their international project, BRIDGE, an exciting new collaboration between ArtCan and Swedish arts organisation OSKG, that bridges the gap across countries, across borders, across cultures, and across art practices. She has shown work at Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate; being a winner of their Portfolio Art Prize in the community group category. The recent textile exhibition UNRAVELLED in Southwest London was co curated by Melanie, along with BobCat Gallery owner Catherine Sweet. Melanie was awarded an MA in Fine Art from The University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury in 2020.
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THE HOUSE OF SMALLS
Unravelled March 2024
Unravelled is a dual venue group exhibition focused on ArtCan's artist members working with fibre and textiles. Unravelled is co-curated by ArtCan members Catherine Sweet and Melanie Jordan.
Unravelled aims to highlight how the boundaries of practicality and aesthetics can be blurred with the variety of methods used to create textile art, and to ‘tug on the thread’ of the narratives created within the whole.
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Adisham Arts Festival 2024
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BRIDGE NOVEMBER 2023
A joint ArtCan and OSKG exhibition in Southern Sweden.
The Time of Her Life III
Cut
Community Stitching Project 2021-2022
Very proud to be at The Turner Contemporary in Margate to drop off our beautiful banner that has been shortlisted for their Portfolio Competition; in the community group category. It was created as a community project by The Coffee Project, with members of the community of Laddingford, and was hosted by their wonderful pub; The Chequers Inn.
PRENZLAUER STUDIO- WINDOW PROJECT
BERLIN 2021
Placenta beautifully installed in the window of the Prenzlauer Studio in Berlin.
Crossing the Liminal 2021
ArtCan Artists Exhibition
Curated by Lucy Pickford
Hampstead Garden Gallery July 2021
look out for my little oak gall ink pieces.
Brewery Tap Residency 2021
Artist Lorrain Mailer, Ali Lees and I spent a week installing and making work in The Brewery Tap Folkestone in April.
Lunar 2021
An exhibition exploring our relationship with the moon.
The Turner Open Exhibition, 2021
Refresh Art Award 2021
Proud to be shortlisted for The Refresh Art Award. A real life show!
Cut the Umbilical
This piece is the first in a series of sculpted implements for severing the umbilical link between mother and dependent adult.
Supermarket Art Fair 2022
So proud to be taking part in this amazing event in Stockholm, Sweden with ArtCan.