Melanie Stidolph

Thank you to Rosalyn Scott for the invitation to be part of her important online project In Other Words.

Featuring interviews with authors and poets who identify as either childless or childfree (as well as those who lie somewhere in between or prefer not to label themselves), we hear about their work, inspiration and lives. The discussions also cover the representation of non-parents in literature, and how childless or childfree writers and readers can be better represented by the wider publishing world.

Rosalyn runs the ‘NoMo’ book club – highlighting books that feature realistic narratives around this experience – find it on instagram here – NoMo Book Club. *NoMo is a term created by the childless advocate Jody Day in 2012 – it is used to describe anyone who identifies as a non-mother.

I’m in Group 4 of her interview series, with some wonderful and influential writers (Rosalyn has kindly stretched the definition to include my work and the photo book Endless Reproduction). Launches on 19 October online here – In Other Words.

Helen Acklam, Finding a Place, 2023

🎨 MAC’s Symposium: Picturing The Unseen – Grief & labour in and out of motherhood

Thu 12 Sep 2024

This event addressed experiences of struggling to conceive, (in)fertility, being childless not by choice, maternal grief and caring for chronically ill children, as part of the Acts of Creation exhibition programme.

The day was developed with Sally Butcher and Hettie Judah, honoured to work with you both, thank you Hettie for the invitation. This day was partly inspired by the (M)otherhood: Art & Life event at Tate St Ives last year, supported and developed with The Paul Mellon Centre.

Speakers:

Elina Brotherus, Sally Butcher, Jessa Fairbrother, El Morgan, Trish Morrissey, Holly Slingsby, Helen Acklam, Sofie Layton, Louise Ashcroft, Buki Hannaway, Alexandrina Hemsley, Victoria Robinson, Hettie Judah.

There was power conjured up in the room. I was so moved, lifted and validated by the speakers and their work. This coming together, across life experiences, to acknowledge the whole, felt important, a marker. Thank you to our wonderful, warm audience who held, heard and shared.

Thank you to Roma Piotrowska, Chris and Deborah Kermode at MAC, Birmingham for giving unquestioned institutional support and making it all run so smoothly. Thank you to Sally and Hettie for this sensitive work, approached with compassion, expansive thinking and warmth and attention to the experience of others. Thank you to everyone who came and supported and shared at this event. It felt important, a marker in these conversations.

We missed you Dr Pragya Agarwal, but as Hettie said, we have your books, hope to see you soon. Looking forward to Hayley Frances summing up the day in poetry.

Proud of this commission made with the amazing Hospital Rooms team, patients and staff. There’s also a beautiful publication sharing all the work 📖💙, including an essay by Martin Holman and photographs by Oliver Udy.

Installation shots and video of the project by Rachael Jones shared at Newlyn & The Exchange gallery 9 August – 28 September 2024.

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Still, held, 2024 is a photographic installation created by Melanie Stidolph for the female lounge on Carbis Ward in Redruth. Hand-made paper flowers, created by service users, staff and members of the public with lived exper­ience of mental health services during workshops on the ward and at IntoBodmin, were thrown into the air and photographed using specialist equip­ment. The resulting images, showing the flowers coming together in mid-air, represent the gathering of people which surrounded their creation and which defines the room in which they are now installed.⁠
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‘I wanted to make a flower garden for service users that would adorn the walls of Carbis Ward and represent the time we spent together. The final photographs sit on a painted backdrop which softly fades from pink to blue, referencing Cornish skies. They show flowers suspended in mid-air and hands below – releasing, or ready to hold.’ – Melanie Stidolph⁠

For more info and images visit – Hospital Rooms

Submerged Bodies – Ashanti Hare, Tëan Roberts, Melanie Stidolph

Curated by Isla McGregor-Smith, Ashleigh Sirs an Sabrina Sudol – MA Curation students, University of Exeter. 7-16 June 2024.

Building upon the ideas and theories of Hydrofeminism put forth by Astrida Neimanis, who argues that we are all bodies of water inextricably connected to the natural world, Submerged Bodies: Mythical Reflections in South West Waters will explore the relationship between the artist’s body and water, whilst considering the myths that exist around gender and water. In the global context of environmental disaster, it is now, more than ever, important to re-learn how we can connect our bodies with nature and exist on our planet.

https://foreignbodies.art/

Three years ago I posted this brilliant image by Elina Brotherus to share an article by Hettie Judah Why is it so hard to talk about fertility?. Artist Sally Butcher wrote ‘Thanks for sharing this ❤️’.

So pleased and uplifted to be co-programming with Hettie, Sally and MAC curator Roma Piotrowska this event around Hettie’s major touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood. Thank you to Hettie for the invitation.

Picturing the unseen: Grief and labour in and out of motherhood
Thursday 12 September 2024
MAC, Birmingham

Tickets now on sale (Pay what you can) on MAC site.

Join us for a symposium addressing experiences of (m)otherhood including; struggling to conceive, infertility, being childless not by choice, maternal grief and caring for chronically ill children.

Held in the context of the major exhibition ‘Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood’, this day-long event will feature presentations by artists, writers and art historians sharing their research and personal work around these subjects. This event is open to all.

The full programme will be released soon.

Image: ‘Carpe Fucking Diem’ by Elina Brotherus

New art home @porthmeorstudios!

Just listened to @elizabday podcast where she talks about infertility as the canvas her life was written on 🤍. But also have Philip Guston quote ringing in my ears about all the people that come into the studio with you and how one by one they all leave your thoughts as you work, and if you’re lucky, you leave too. Somewhere in between then…

‘When you start working, everybody is in your studio – the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas… But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one and you are left completely alone. Then if you’re lucky, even you leave.’ Philip Guston

Thank you Borlase Smart Trust for this beautiful new space!

Brilliant to be working with the wonderful Hospital Rooms team. 13 artists are working on workshops and installations for two mental health hospitals in Bodmin and Redruth, I’m delighted to be one of them.

Artists selected: Anna Barriball, Sovay Berriman, Phillippa Clayden, Janet Holland, Chantal Joffe, Alvin Koffe, Abigail Reynolds, Ro Robertson, Ben Sanderson, Melanie Stidolph, Maria Christoforidou and Viviane Vaux, Lucy Willow.

https://hospital-rooms.com/cornwall-hospitals

(M)otherhood: Art & Life event at Tate St Ives was devoted to perspectives around motherhood and creativity, around loss, grief and childlessness not by choice.

50 of us gathered and shared and supported each other to tell stories, our own and others, to find new ways into Barbara Hepworth’s work and new ways to be in the world. I know that sounds grand but my heart has been lifted by this work – through hosting at the weekend and developing the event with my wonderful colleague Katy Norris and the incredible and generous support of Sria Chatterjee and Sarah Victoria Turner of The Paul Mellon Centre.

Speakers:

Hettie Judah, Lucy Willow, Holly Slingsby, Melanie Stidolph, Sophie J Williamson, Kerri ni Dochartaigh, Dr Pragya Agarwal, Katy Norris, Jody Day.

A special thanks to the incredible audience who came from far and wide – who all helped create a safe space to share, for their warm feedback and for the potential of more to come from this.

Recordings of the presentations are accessible on The Paul Mellon Centre website.

Brilliant that photographs and text from my book Endless Reproduction are featured in The Guardian – published yesterday.

Absolutely delighted to be awarded an Arts Council England project grant!

The next dawn, the next spring will be based on a filmed performance around a rock pool in Cornwall, where a group of women will sing into the dusk and with the dawn. 

The next dawn, the next spring will bring together women who are childless not by choice in a supportive space. The performance will be developed through workshops held at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange as part of the exhibition We Are Floating in Space, 11 February – 3 June 2023.

Scenes of women around the edge of the pool will be interspersed with images of limbs aligning with natural forms, seaweed and rock forms. These passages are symbolic of regaining joy, of being back in the world, aligning with nature, rather than being at odds.

The film and its future screenings are motivated by my experiences of infertility and childlessness and aim to give a platform for people who are childless not by choice, to give a voice to unheard experience and support moving to acceptance and joy.

This production is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and with the support of Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange.