| HOME | DMWM | EVENTS | NEWS | ARTICLES | OPPORTUNITIES |
 |
Future Forward 1 - Continuing narratives and new directionsAn article by Frances Lord mentor to Melanie Tomlinson on the Future Forward 1 mentoring programme.
Melanie’s background and training is in illustration and, at the time of applying to FF1, her practice comprised a range of printed metal jewellery, one off intricately coloured and decorated small scale sculptures on boxes and framed wall panels with strong narrative themes. In Melanie’s words her,
“printed tin tableaux are inspired by [her] passion for nature. Running through my work like threads are themes from folklore. These allow me to slip into another world, to explore the world of the unfamiliar and transform its stories and symbols.”
In our first session we established a number of core issues to focus on during the mentoring period. These were developing the work within a contemporary art context; working within an international, and ideally environmental, context; challenging and developing the themes and content of the work and pursuing possibilities and suitable contexts for site-specific installations.
While all these issues remained relevant Melanie decided for the first few months of the programme to prioritise and explore the possibility of working directly with natural history archives and specimen collections through a residency or a direct commission.
Together we made visits and met curators who we felt could be helpful in developing Melanie’s research interests: namely the Curator of Contemporary Arts and the Family Programme Learning Developer at the National History Museum, London, and the Keeper of National History at the Booth Museum, Brighton. We also toured the new Darwin Centre in London and, in a group meeting with other FF1 mentees, mentors and DMWM Director, met with staff from the arts and curatorial team at the Wellcome Trust in Euston.
The value of thorough preparation, presentation of good quality images and a strongly argued proposal was proven as Melanie presented her work, ideas and plans clearly and succinctly in places that were sometimes noisy (e.g. the Natural History Museum café at half term!) and with limited time. Melanie commented that, “meeting with curators has given me an insight into the expectations of curators and public institutions and how one might go about working with them”.
Although no immediate projects or commissions have resulted from these meetings Melanie has a strong proposal down on paper which she feels is “a good reference tool for the future… and a good exercise in the editing down of ideas”. The meetings with curators has provided valuable feedback and helped clarify aspirations in terms of suitable venues as well as confidence in developing plans for a self-initiated research project. Other benefits resulting from the mentoring contact have been re-writing her artistic statement, re-defining goals, prioritising opportunities, and deciding when ‘not’ to apply for things.
As we come to the end of our mentoring sessions Melanie is working on a new printed tin tableaux piece to be shown at Collect in May 2010: a wonderful opportunity to present her work to an international audience. Reflecting on FF1 Melanie comments that the programme,
“helped [her] to make the commitment to take a step back and take a new direction. This slowing down has been important, as it has given me time to edit my ideas and consider new ones. I have gained confidence and re-focused on positive aspects of my work. The strongest work comes from the clearest thoughts”.
www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/Museums/boothmuseum www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/darwin-centre-visitors
All images courtesy of Melanie Tomlinson |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
