Mel is an artist and writer who looks (mostly) at place, memory and speculative futures. Through narrative and modelmaking, she builds speculative landscapes which hinge on the concept of palimpsests. A palimpsest here can refer to an object that bears visible traces of its earlier form, such as a manuscript written over. Janet Donohoe, in Remembering Places, applies this term to landscapes as a tool to think through the overlapping and layered nature of place. Mel uses this notion to research the city, ownership, housing, vacancy and land.
In 2023, Mel completed her MA in Art and Research Collaboration at IADT, continuing on to join the teaching staff as a tutor in digital fabrication and visualisation. She has shown and performed work across Ireland and the UK, including the LAB Gallery, Barnavave, UCC, and Signal Film & Media. Recent collaborative group projects include themes of queer ecologies (the Balcony Project at Project Arts Centre), art and the city (Fringe Was Here at Dublin Fringe) and archiving and forgetting (Memory, Loss at BASE). In 2020 Mel was awarded Young Cumbrian Artist of the Year and won second place in the practitioner category in the RIBA Eyeline Awards in 2021. Her artworks are held in the collections of the Bodleian Library (Oxford) and, more importantly, on the walls and bookshelves of strangers and friends.
Group Shows, Residencies & Presentations_
March 25 _ Group Show _ Liquid Urbanisms, the LAB Gallery, Dublin
A group show bringing together practices imagining the speculative future of housing and planning in Ireland, which included the second public sharing of 'Valerian' in a new iteration, and the first showing of 'Holdings' as an artist book and speculative landscape (a piece created from the second case study completed during Data Stories)
Nov 24_ Residency_ Allegories of the Metropolis, Screen Service and BETA Festival
A two-month residency developing the artwork 'Valerian' (created as part of the Data Stories residency), shared as part of BETA festival at the Digital Hub.
Oct 24 _ Conference Presentation _ Workshop on Vacancy, Occupation and Commoning at Trinity College, Dublin
A public sharing of the research and process behind the creation of 'Valerian', reflecting on the Data Stories underpinning and in-progress material developing from the Allegories of the Metropolis residency.
Nov 24 _ Artist Book Fair _ Fictions: the Making of Other Worlds, Dublin Art Book Fair
'Spill Into Us' shared as part of Dublin Art Book Fair.
Oct 24 _ Collaborative Research Project _ Memory, Loss at BASE
A six week peer-learning research project thinking about memory, remembering and forgetting, which culminated in a public sharing event.
Sep 24 _ Art Walk _ Fringe Was Here, Dublin Fringe
Collaborative group project building a walk through the city from past performances from the Fringe archive. Shared over a series of four performance over a weekend during a weekend at the festival. The walk I led focused on noticing the layered nature of the places we inhabit, and asking how we create care for them.
Aug 24 _ Group Show _ Distro: the Reading Room, Muine Bheag Arts
An exhibition sharing artist bookmaking and zine culture in Ireland, displayed as a reading room as part of a programme of events for COMMUNE. Epitaphs and Spill Into Us (as a bound copy) were shared here.
Aug 23 - Aug 24 _ Residency _ Data Stories, Maynooth University Social Science Institute
A year-long residency with researchers at Maynooth University, focused on mapping the ecosystem of planning and property data in Ireland. The project included research creation with external case study participants and the researchers.
April 24 _ Collaborative Research Project _ The Balcony Project, Project Arts Centre
A group research project on Queer Ecologies, led by artist Louis Haugh. Over the summer we constructed supports and movable planters, planted up a whole host of saplings, and regularly met to share papers, books and references on the theme of queerness in nature.
March 24 _ Publication _ Spill Into Us, Lesbian Art Circle V.II
First public sharing of 'Spill Into Us', a writing about cities, memories and friends.
July 23 _ Performance and Installation _ Sinking, in Slow Motion, Signal Film & Media
A collaborative performance with Nuria Rovira Terrades, positioning a reading of 'Sinking, in slow motion' within a soundscape of the Furness peninsula. A recording of the work become part of an installation at Signal, alongside relics, artworks and etchings.
May 23 _ Group Show _ Barnavere / Tread Softly
Exhibiting at the Barnavere site in Carlingford as part of a group show researching the history of the site and practices within art that co-exist with the landscape.
May 23 _ Group Show_ Lost Exhibition, Theatre by the Lake
First showing of ‘Sinking, in Slow Motion’ in the UK, in the form of a series of booklets holding four chapters of the narrative
March/May 23 _ Residency _ Screen Service
Collaborating with Cóilín O’Connell in a two month residency with Screen Service.
Feb 23 _ Studio Visit _ IADT, the World Craft Council
Shared my current artistic research with representatives from the World Craft Council as part of their scheduled visit to IADT
Jan 23 _ Group Show _ A Perambulation at the LAB, Dublin
Exhibited a collection of works researching the Furness Peninsula
Dec 22 _ TIDAL Research Development Lab _ Signal, Barrow
Participated in 2-day lab focused on art, landscape and technology
Sep 22 _ Group Show _ Unpublished Tour at the Bridewell, Liverpool
Participated in a second iteration of the Unpublished Tour, showing an etched concertina book alongside the original triptych
Jun 22 _ Group Show _ Dialectic Visions at The Horse, Dublin
Part of a three-person group show focusing specifically on the theme of landscape
Apr 22 _ Contributing Artist _ Folded Zine
Participated in Issue 5 of Folded Zine, creating a series of etchings based around the theme of 'reflection’
Nov 21 _ Group Show _ Unpublished Tour
Created work in response to a research trip to the Duddon Estuary and showed final imagined landscape triptych as part of a group show at Millom Palladium
Nov 21 _ Group Show _ Movement at Cross Lanes Gallery, Kendal
Participated in group show as part of Folded Zine, showing an animation of landscapes and poetry
Oct 21_ Digital Publication _ Folded Zine
Participated in Issue 4 of Folded Zine, responding to the theme of 'Movement'
Sep 21 _ Conference Speaker _ RAPS, Bristol
Speaker at Radical Architecture for Sustainable Practice
Aug 21 _ Digital Publication _ Folded Zine
Participated in Issue 3 of Folded Zine, responding to the theme of 'Space and Landscape'
Aug 21 _ Artist in Residence _ Pink Manchester
Creation of a collaboration project and research residency at Pink, an arts space for curatorial research.
July 21 _ Commissioned Artist _ Our World, Ulverston Coronation Hall
Creation of an installation based on the Furness landscape.
June 20 _ Motifs of a City _Wildfell Zine
Contribution to digital zine
June 20 _ The City Builds _ Wildfell Zine
Contribution to digital zine
Feb 20 _ Young Cumbrian Artist of the Year _ Carlisle Institute of Art
Winner of Young Cumbrian Artist of the Year and invited to complete a residency with Eden Arts in 2021
Nov 19 _ ‘The words that precede my mouth’ _ Soft Spot
Slow hung group show growing from conversations within the space on collaboration, writing, language and diagrams
Oct 19 _ ‘MANUSCRIPT’ _ Manchester Art Fair
Curator and artist of the MANUSCRIPT stand, focusing on printed matter emerging from the Manchester School of Art
Aug 19 _ 'but what happened in the summer?' _ Bodleian Library Oxford
Artist book held in the collections of the Bodleian Library, Oxford
Aug 19 _ 'untitled' _ Bodleian Library Oxford
Artist book held in the collections of the Bodleian Library, Oxford
July 19 _ Degree Show _ Manchester School of Art
March 19 _ ‘Matters of Procedure’ _ Curated by Katy Morrison
Participating artist in week-long curatorial project, culminating in a show at the Side Gallery
March 19 _ Young Cumbrian Artist of the Year _ Carlisle Institute of Art Shortlisted Artist
Nov 18 _ Doremi Residency _ Art Gene
Group residency based in Barrow-in-Furness, culminating in a group show
May 18 _ ‘Syste, m a complicate’ _ Vernon Park Museum
Invited artist to group exhibition on ‘writing as art’
May 18 _ ‘Two glasses of red and an exhibition guide’ _ Deaf Institute
Participating artist in performance based group show
May 18 _ ‘Unquiet Landscapes’ _ Plant Noma
Curator and participating artist
April 18 _ ‘Perambulate’ _ Vertical Gallery
Participating artist
March 18 _ ‘The Dream Committee’ _ curated by Andrew Hunt
Participating artist
Jan 18 _ ‘Testing Ground’ _ Curated by Tom Emery
Participating artist
Education & Employment_
IADT, Ireland _ Masters in Art and Research Collaboration _ First Class Hons
Manchester School of Art _ Fine Art BA(Hons) _ First Class Hons
Leeds College of Art _ Extended Diploma in Art & Design _ Distinction
Kendal College _ BTEC Diploma in Photography _ Merit
MMU English Literature Department _ Research Assistant to Dr David Cooper _ 2018
MMU Politics Department _ Research Assistant to Dr Adi Kuntsman _ 2019