Melanie Stidolph

Pre-orders 1 – 25 May. Shipping from 1 June

Dark Shining Wolf is a new venture from my alter ego – the title comes from the meaning of my given names.

Three designs – each featuring a still from 16mm films shot around the rocks, pools and quarries of Cornwall, part of an ongoing desire to regain a connection with nature after falling out with it.

Pre-orders for first shipping are open until 25 May. For humans and dogs (and any animals in-between), for heads and throats (particularly fine on the long necked whippet).

Thank you to CKA X Make South West – who have selected the pieces for the Make South West store.

www.melaniestidolph.com

The Ladder, 2-4 Clinton Rd, Redruth, TR15 2QE

2 – 16 May

PV Friday 1 May

Looking forward to this show – selected film and photography in response to the theme of Mythopoesis – The imaginative transformation of the world through fiction, inspired by the work of artist and theorist Simon O’Sullivan.

Artists – Ingrid Pop, Wolfgang Dubieniec, Melanie Stidolph, Sam Merritt, Anna Jarai, Julian Micallef, Florence Bennett, Ollie Carr, Eve Diveney-Clegg & Ruby Ingleheart.

CURATED BY EYES PEELED X CINEMACLUB

www.instagram.com/theladder_rr/

Thank you to curators Olivia Reynolds and Julia Wirxel for the invitation to Family Crinkles, a group exhibition of artists from Berlin and Cornwall at the incredible Lobe Block in Berlin.

My film The next dawn, the next spring will be screened at the private view, and the dresses from the performance will hang in the beautiful brutalist space along with new works on fabric. They have also commissioned a flag, a still from The next dawn, the next spring for the top of the extraordinary building.

The exhibition ‘Family crinkles’ brings together contemporary artistic positions that understand family as a relational and performative structure. Based on Judith Butler’s understanding of social relationships as a performative practice, family structures appear here as fluid constellations that form in the field of tension between intimacy, dependence and power.  The works in painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation negotiate questions of origin, identity and electoral kinship and make family visible as a space that is characterised by vulnerability as well as resistance.

Lobeblock

ALMA Artspace

5 Wesley Yard, Newquay, TR7 1LB

16 May – 16 June

PV 16th May, 6pm – 8pm

Anchorhold is a two person show by Rachael Coward and Melanie Stidolph. The exhibition brings together existing works and new pieces in conversation.

Coward’s fragile works reference the practical hardware of the shoreline, shifting between utilitarian and symbolic offerings. These delicate ceramic pieces sit alongside the slippery draping of Stidolph’s printed fabrics, depicting characters in communion with the rocky edges of Cornwall’s coast.

Together they create an installation for ALMA that embodies the sanctity of the studio, aligning it with the religious space of the Anchorhold. These spaces of voluntary enclosure sat adjunct to places of worship, inhabited by an Anchorite or Anchoress with limited sightlines to the outside world.

The exhibition is accompanied by a Stone Walk printmaking workshop with Rachael Coward (Saturday 6 June, 11am – 1pm) and an After Sessions artist talk and Q&A + book signing with curator and author Hettie Judah (Tuesday 16 June, 6pm – 8pm).

www.alma-artspace.com

Still, held is through to the final selection stage for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. It would be wonderful to show it in the context of the RA, wish me luck for the final judging in London at the end of May!

Still, held was taken in workshops with patients and staff at Camborne and Redruth Community Hospital and at the community resource, IntoBodmin. The photograph is part of a permanent installation of these works commissioned by Hospital Rooms in partnership with Cornwall Hospitals.

Photo credit: @folktographic Connor Lassey

Great to be collaborating with THE WAD – making wavers for their upcoming performances! The wavers will be my first outing under my alter ego – Dark Shining Wolf – the meanings of my given names.

THE WAD are a Falmouth-based Morris dancing side named after Joan the WAD, Queen of the Cornish Piskies. Cornish folklore suggests that Joan the WAD would light people to safety, or sometimes peril, across the Cornish moors.

The word ‘wad’ is often recorded as an old Cornish colloquial term for ’torch’ or bundle of straw. Joan the WAD is now seen as a good luck charm to many.

Increase your good fortune – Join THE WAD!

Open: Fri 13, Sat 14, Fri 20 and 21 March, 11-4pm (or by appointment)

Closing Event : Saturday 21 March, 4pm – late.

Featuring: Sovay Berriman, Benedict Davies, Kath Buckler, Naomi Frears, Leila Galloway, Georgia Gendall, Liam Jolly, Dean Knight, Patrick Lowry, Alice Mahoney, Jacqui Orly Ammon, Stuart Robinson, Melanie Stidolph, A Todd, Andy Webster.

Following part one of this project that began on St Piran’s Day as a one-day intervention in a charity shop on Redruth’s high street, the works have now been extracted where they will be re-presented at AH for the next two weeks.

Moving between contrasting systems of value and display, Second Hand explores how context shapes meaning – from the visual noise of a charity shop to the conventions of the gallery. By asking artists to present something existing, work with items in the shop, or make a light-touch intervention within this non-art space, the project invites new audiences to encounter contemporary art and follow it as it relocates to Auction House, making the act of extraction both visible and literal.

www.auctionhouseart.co.uk

Second Hand – Part 1

GONE TO THE DOGS – K9 CRUSADERS CHARITY SHOP

69 FORE ST, REDRUTH TR15 2AF

Great invite from Liam Jolly at Auction House to take part in a group exhibition with 15 artists which starts at a charity shop – Gone to the Dogs, Redruth on St Piran’s day – 7th March.

I’ll be showing new work – exploring scarves as a form with links to resistance, artist’s practice and as identifiers of community. Historical links to artists in Cornwall through the Ascher commissions, which featured a 1947 design by Barbara Hepworth, the proof for which is held at the Hepworth Wakefield. 🪡

The exhibition tests how the meaning of works shifts in different contexts and is part of a year long collaboration with Auction House, Back Lane West and CMR Project Space to change perceptions of contemporary art, making it more open and relevant for a wider audience. Part 2 will take place at Auction House over the two following weekends.Brilliant opportunity to work with new materials and forms of display in this unique place.🧵🎥🪨

Click link here for all artists and dates on Auction House website

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Telling stories through photography with Melanie Stidolph

Make It Better CIC

Wednesday 25th February 10.00 – 12.00

Borlase Smart room, Porthmeor Studios, St Ives

Join artist photographer Melanie Stidolph for this engaging and inspiring session where we will create shared stories through photography.

Melanie will guide us as we read and choose aspects of a narrative to respond to and seek out images that relate to this. Such as the story of Mr Ellis’s ship ‘Truelove’ – which was built from floorboards in 1906 and moved to the sea’s edge in Penzance (never to leave it).

We will then gather to share our photographs and findings, editing them together to form the group’s story. At the end of the session, we will present the whole story.

Bring your phone or camera or please let us know if you would like to use a tablet that we Mitber can provide.

Tickets (£5) available here: Eventbrite

Photo credit Morrab Library – thank you for your kind permission to reproduce.