Dawn Mellor comes from Gamesley which is
quite close to where I come from; this immediately put me at ease& I
thought I might just like her. However, she had a very no-nonsense way of
speaking, as if she is always on the defensive and at times she came across as
quite rude. But this just made her a captivating speaker and I barely took any
notes because I was so absorbed in what she had to say.
She mentioned her book 'Michael Jackson and Other Men’, that she
grew up in the 80s when life was fraught with the race riots. This affected her
in many ways, as you would expect. Her paintings are from “constructed personas”,
showing well known faces destroyed or mutilated in some way giving them a
sinister feel which makes you question why they have the right to be in a
position of power in their normal lives. After seeing their faces distorted and
broken you start to look at them (as normal people) in a different way, what is
this obsession with celebrity about?
Mellor believes that her art has a
political stance, she called it “derailing the black/white/bad/good”; she
intends to blur the lines between these things in order to stop people from
thinking in binary oppositions.
When discussing her painting process
Mellor said she starts making and then finds problems to solve. This resonates with
me as an experimental painter and it was interesting to hear that this problem
occurs regardless of your painting style. Furthermore she said that none of the
concepts discovered after a show were intentional from the start, meaning that
she does not paint to get a reaction and does not intend or predict any
response. Although, this is hard to believe given the emotive nature of her
work which is bound to evoke a response from the general public, some of which
will no doubt idolise the people who’s faces she mutilates.
Mellor went on to describe the challenge
she faces between the expectation and demand for her work and her own love of
making. As the galleries are always pushing her to produce things that she does
not want to produce. Leading her towards what the current market is interested
in instead of what she is currently interested in. This was very encouraging to
hear of someone standing up to ‘the man’ and getting away with it! She went on
to mention that on several occasions the galleries have been known to be wrong,
making me think that people are more likely to buy what is in front of them as
oppose to demand something different.
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