100 Days to Create a Narrative series (solo exhibition), 2015
Spectrum Project Space, Edith Cowan University – Mount Lawley, Western Australia. 15 – 28 May 2015.
In 100 days Mel Dare finds many questions and some answers.
Through her work the artist has delved into many different but interrelating subjects including subjectivity, psychology, identity, time and perspective. Recently she has been preoccupied with the neurological and biological mechanisms centralised around the implications of being.
This has lead the artist to re-examine the theme of identity, resulting in this current project where the artist undertook a 100 day visual monologue which became an investigation into the construction of personal narrative. Each day the artist produced an artwork. As part of this process, she recognised some moments stood out from the others. Most moments were discarded. Pushed aside. Forgotten before taking form. A few lingered, gathered and consolidated to become her daily subjects. This visual monologue is a reflection on a series of moments. It is part of the artist’s ongoing preoccupation with how meaning is constructed, how individual perspective and understanding is created, distorted and sustained.
Caitlin Dominey writes about the exhibition in Colosoul Magazine: “beautifully subtle abstract imagery to perfectly capture the dual nature of emotional memory. These memories are both sharp as a knife and fluid. So fluid they may just slip through the fingers of our consciousness. For me, each painting captures my attention like it’s inflicted a small cut, while somehow remaining just beyond complete comprehension. This is what I love most about this collection of works, besides the obvious aesthetic appeal of the paintings themselves, is the combination of emotional self-indulgence from the artist portrayed in such an enigmatic manner that it becomes (paradoxically) highly relatable to the person viewing the work”. 100 Days to Create a Narrative by Mel Dare, Colosoul Magazine, 26 May 2015 by Caitlin Dominey.