MELT
MELT examines mythological origin stories, asking what new futures are possible through the re-writing of cultural truths. In doing so, it broadens the idea of origin stories as based predominantly in the agency of male character. The work in MELT responds to Norse mythology and the phenomenological experience of the Icelandic landscape. Method and distribution both become unreliable mediators in this work that seeks to question the stability and authority of story.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction rejects the heroic trope and the symbology of a sword, instead exploring the bag as a container for what is sacred, generative and human. MELT similarly re-examines a canon of Western origin stories via the creation of new feminist narratives. The works co-opt known mythologies that center around ‘hero’ or ‘God’. These new myths do not end in death or victory—their dramatics are unresolved, analysis incomplete, and characters mortal. Yet the story embodies both science and mythology, adventure and ritual, raw data and human emotion.
Collaborative body of work created during a residency at Skaftfell Center for Visual Arts, Iceland with Laine Rettmer.
On my first pass through the space, I was struck by a video that displayed a woman clawing at her face. Steam rose up around her, as if being born out of some primordial soup. She was fair, and against the smoky white background there was a sense of innocence, but her teeth were sharpened — predatory. I couldn’t help but keep watching as she awakened in front of my eyes, born into this world, nor could I help but wonder whether she was good or evil.
-- William Kryjk, Boston Hassle
Selected Press:
March 2019 'Went There: MELT at FPAC', Boston Hassle
January 2019 “5 Things To Do This Weekend From A Hip-Hop Declaration To Women Artists Shattering Ceilings”, Amelia Mason, WBUR Artery
January 2019 “The Ticket: what’s happening in the local art world”, Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe
Exhibition:
2019 HOT STEAM II Screening, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA
2019 Icebox Projects
2019 Fort Point Arts Gallery, Boston, MA