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| Melinda Young in her studio |
Melinda Young is a contemporary craft artist whose work spans jewellery, textiles, installation and interactive public art projects. She has exhibited extensively in Australia andinternationally since 1997, her work is held in public collections and included in numerous publications. Melinda’s practice primarily engages with the idea of ‘place’ and explorations of materiality, with an emphasis on found or re-purposed materials as vehicles for narrative explorations of the landscape and the people who inhabit it. Currently undertaking a cross-disciplinary PhD at the Australian Centre for Culture Environment Society and Space (ACCESS), University of Wollongong; Melinda’s research explores how the concept of place has developed as a common touchstone for the maker, wearer/user and viewer of contemporary jewellery and small craft objects. Her research investigates how ‘objects carry traces’and how these traces help to distinguish and form personal narratives. She is also investigating how contemporary jewellers use the found object to ‘map’ locations. Found materials, both natural and ‘unnatural’, are a constant presence in her work, the recovery of leftover materials is used to develop narrative, direct meaning and context for the research and its physical outcomes. The action of moving through the landscape, the linearity of a journey rather than the abstract fictive space of the ‘excursion’ increasingly informs the production of the work and the liminal space of the journey is frequently the site of making. Alongside her making practice, Melinda has spent the past 20 years working within the contemporary craft and design field as an educator, curator, writer and gallery manager. Melinda is an Associate Lecturer at UNSW School of Art & Design.
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| Melinda Young, Future Relic Neckpiece, 2018. Plastic marine debris, brass, handspun fishing line. 400x200x60mm Collection of Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery |
During my residency at Gunyah I will develop a new sequence of research work for my PhD. This research involves reflection and immersion in place, looking at practices of navigating and mapping to understand how place can be reflected in a wearable object. By working in different locales, this work also reflects on the notion of the souvenir as an object collected in place. Working on location/in place extends my material and skills-based language through the necessary development of adaptive making practices. I will also write; consolidating my research for interviewing contemporary jewellers whose practice sees them mapping different locations.
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| Melinda Young, Graft & Glove (detail from the Installation Arbus/Adrift - Together/Apart), 2020. Driftwood, marine debris, 925 silver; largest 200x50x30mm. |
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| Melinda Young, Tracelines - Aftermath (Riverbed) Neckpiece, 2019. Heat patinated copper, handspun worsted yarn, coloured pencil; 500x400x10mm |
