Melissa Hill
Contemporary Art

Exhibitions

Jun
22
to Jun 26

The Cabinet of Self Exhibition

In cooperation with The Open Dresser Gallery, The Cabinet of Self explores constructed identities and political points of view. Showing two projects created during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021.

Fuel For The Fire (Right To Left Leaning) is a jibe at the earnestly curated Zoom bookshelf titles that proliferated as people laboured to assert their “brands” during lockdown. A selection of ten painted-over charity shop books ordered in a job lot suspend in pairs are doomed to circle each other around a shared dilemma. PERSONA-RAMA! uses a deck of painted-over charity shop playing cards suggesting prompts to proliferate identities. How much control do we really have over how we view others and how others in turn view us?

View virtual events on Instagram at @the.open.dresser.gallery. Register for in-person viewing at www.cabinetofself.eventbrite.com

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Nov
25
6:00 PM18:00

Artist Talk at What’s Happening in Black British History Conference via Zoom

As night fell over the affluent market town of Sevenoaks, an ordinary middle-class family brazenly parked their Prius on the double yellow lines and began unloading the car. Over the next 90 minutes, large plywood boards were erected in the medieval Shambles square and Sevenoaks was introduced to three new visitors.

The mural depicted three men in tunics, relaxing and having a lively, light-hearted conversation. The foreground figure, larger than life, turns slightly, locking eyes with the viewer and smiling, raises his glass in greeting. They are unmistakably Black.

In 2020, humanity faces a number of terrifying challenges. This talk looks at the tension between local history and how a community sees itself within a broader context. Public art has a role to play, inspiring imagination and curiosity in local history which helps people to envision a narrative rooted in the past that will lay a path to how we can live together harmoniously in the future.

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Jul
23
to Aug 2

Sacred Vessel

Representing the estimated number of women raped every hour in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 48 hand built clay torsos, marked with traditional scarification patterns and blackened from a wood fire will be exhibited.

Sexual violence and mutilation as a weapon of war have become endemic in many conflict zones as it is a sadly highly effective tactic for clearing desirable territory. But in the DRC, the scale and brutality of sexual violence is considered by the UN and other relief agencies to be the worst in the world.

This may seem to us in the West to be a tragic problem, but one of war and a breakdown of culture and society. However, the drive to clear territory comes from our own obsessive consumption of mobile phones as the land concerned in the conflict is around the countries mines, where in particular coltan is found in rich abundance. Our profligate use and disposal of mobile devices is driving this particularly grisly conflict.

Many people say their “whole life” is their phone. Is it worth the violation, mutilation and often prolonged death of 48 women every hour?

Admission: FREE

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Tickets

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