Belgrade Art Studio Residency

Melania Jack

Online Residency 2022

 

Artistic Statement

I am queer, feminist artist working within sound, projection and performance platforms. I am one half of the electronic, experimental art duo; The Ironing Maidens. We have turned irons and ironing boards into electronic instruments to explore themes of gender, domestic labour, and technology. The live show has toured large festivals such as Woodford Folk Festival, international festivals such as Fusion Germany, Berlin Performance Art Festival. It has toured regional laundromats in QLD/ NSW as site specific performance spaces. The project won a John Chataway Innovation Award at Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2019 and 2020.

My production work with the Ironing Maidens involves designing, filming, editing and mapping the projected visuals into washing lines, machines and other physical areas of their performance spaces. The visuals support the messaging of the live show and are evolving into their own stand alone work; as projection installation experiments.

In April 2022, I developed a piece (Strike) for the window space of OuterSpace Gallery at The Judith Wright Centre Brisbane as part of their SuperCut program. An expanded iteration of this work was also presented at NorthSite Contemporary Gallery for their Sounded Out event in May.

During the 31 days of August, I have been provided with a shop space through the Renew Cairns Program which has allowed for experimenting with projection ideas, sculpture shapes, lighting and sound. Two video art and sound pieces were developed titled: Not Performing (My Gender).

I live regionally in Cairns. I work part time as events and content producer for NorthSite Contemporary arts, facilitating an artist connect group for local artists and promoting artists work through panels, discussions and artist talks. I also facilitate community workshops in electronic music production and synth making with a focus on regional, queer, non-binary youth and female identified participant groups.

I have a strong belief in art as a tool for social change. My work starts from my personal experience and then points to the social and cultural contexts. My multidisciplinary approach allows the work to keep evolving, to challenge me personally and to hone my practice as an artist.

 

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