MELANIE COLOSIMO
The Rusty Toque | Issue 12 | Visual Art | June 30, 2017
Transmission Tower.
Air Mesh Fabric, Cut-out.
180 x 116.5 Inches. 2016.
Photo credit: Steve Farmer
Untitled #6 (Lawrence).
Archival Ink on Paper.
35 x 23 Inches. 2010
Chain-Link Fence.
Graphite on Black Paper, Hand Cut-out.
72 x 59 Inches. 2015.
Photo credit: Jordan Blackburn
Shortcuts.
Ink on Paper.
22 x 30 Inches. 2017
BARRICADE FENCE (CROWD CONTROL).
Pressed Graphite on Stonehenge, Sections Cut-out by Hand.
138 x 108 Inches. 2014
Factory. Graphite on Paper.
38 x 50 Inches.
2013.
Photo credit: Mary Ellen Oxby
Factory. Graphite on Paper (detail).
38 x 50 Inches.
2013.
Photo credit: Mary Ellen Oxby
Monolith.
Ink on Paper.
22 x 30 Inches. 2017
Monolith (detail).
Ink on Paper.
22 x 30 Inches. 2017
Broken Barrier.
Graphite on Paper.
22 x 30 Inches.
2016
STATEMENT ON WORK
Much of my work addresses nostalgia, community, dislocation and longing but has recently moved towards a preoccupation with traditionally masculine utilitarian imagery and themes of progress and construction. I commit to simple materials - cut paper, graphite and fabric - to create large-scale drawings and paper sculptures of fences, structures and architecture to explore memory, transitory states and trace imagery. My subjects are temporary utilitarian objects that connote construction, a ‘work in progress’ or the formative states. They are symbols of liminality, thresholds between a previous state of being and the next phase. I explore this liminal state; not only through the completion of a work but also during the phases of creation and process. My most recent body of work uses lattice towers to warn of technology’s fallibility as well as the challenges inherent to communication.
Much of my work addresses nostalgia, community, dislocation and longing but has recently moved towards a preoccupation with traditionally masculine utilitarian imagery and themes of progress and construction. I commit to simple materials - cut paper, graphite and fabric - to create large-scale drawings and paper sculptures of fences, structures and architecture to explore memory, transitory states and trace imagery. My subjects are temporary utilitarian objects that connote construction, a ‘work in progress’ or the formative states. They are symbols of liminality, thresholds between a previous state of being and the next phase. I explore this liminal state; not only through the completion of a work but also during the phases of creation and process. My most recent body of work uses lattice towers to warn of technology’s fallibility as well as the challenges inherent to communication.
MELANIE COLOSIMO is an interdisciplinary artist based in Halifax, NS. She uses graphite and paper to create large-scale sculptural drawings that focus on strong, structural materials to explore identity, liminality and progress. She received a BFA from Mount Allison University (2006) and an MFA from the University of Windsor (2011). She has exhibited and participated in residencies across Canada including the Banff Centre for the Arts, Art Gallery of Windsor and Art Gallery of NS and she was long-listed for the 2017 Sobey Art Award. Colosimo is currently the Director of NSCAD’s Anna Leonowens Gallery where she spearheaded the development of the relational aesthetic project the Art Bar +Projects. www.melaniecolosimo.com
