Melanie Hamilton
ART - BFA
Look What Your Mom Made, or Good&Hard, 2021, IKEA chair, vacuum, microwave, sponge, rags, unfired clay, plaster, chalk, rosemary, laminate, trim, plywood, MDF, steel, paint, 96 x 46 x 54 inches
Look What Your Mom Made, or Good&Hard, 2021, detail
Dining Table 01, 2021, oak dining table set, plaster, steel, 60 x 70 x 50 inches
Dining Table 01, 2021, detail
The foundational subjects of my work are women, care, maintenance, power, gender roles and power dynamics within domestic spaces and familial units. I consider traditions, the everyday, rituals, spirituality, and human/object relationships within domestic space where most commonly women labor and mediate family dynamics. I use materials that are receptive to energy and shaping, as well as those which are utilitarian, readymade, packed with their own emotions and sociocultural memories. The objects, actions, and stories of the domestic world set the stage for my work and my methods explore the labor generated through repetitive activity and gesture. The work holds the private sector of the home with reverence, reconfiguring the domestic space to become a place of power and surrender, textured by its provisions and depletions. @cindysusan