Melanie Stidolph

‘A strong defence of delicate things’, Anna Lucas, Melanie Stidolph, Alice Walton

Auction House, Redruth. 23-27 June (10.30-5pm), evening opening 25 June (6-9pm)

A strong defence of delicate things is the result of an ongoing conversation between three women working with film, photography and found images. This installation brings together photographs from artist’s practice and archives, social media and fashion, staged within a provisional structure. Over five months meeting online the artists developed their shared interest in collaborative looking, working with images that fell loosely within categories of inside & outside, women in the studio, building materials, water, rocks and bodies.

This black and white photograph was taken around 1943, unknown photographer, inside Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, Cornwall. The dark interior of the studio contrasts with the sunlit scene outside, with a still life on the window sill and curtains pulled to one side. On the beach, level with the sill, a woman and a man lie alongside each other. The woman is the artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, the man is likely Robert H Wagner, an American GI who she formed a close relationship with during the war. Both in swimsuits with their legs stretched out, mirroring each other. A shovel leans to one side of the open window, suggesting they have dug their way out through the sand.

More info at www.auctionhouseart.co.uk

With many thanks to Auction House for the invitation to be part of their programme and special thanks to Liam Jolly for his support. Thank you to the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust both for their kind image permission and generous financial support of the exhibition.

Oliver Udy has created a great thing, gathering support from Feast, Arts Council England and Newlyn and The Exchange Gallery in Penzance for Trethvor. He invited us all to be part of it: Michael Eddy / Jasper Fell-Clark / Tor Harrison / Tom Ingate / Melanie Stidolph / Becky Tyrrell.

Trethvor, Cornish for seaside, is an adaptable, itinerant photography exhibition that will celebrate the Cornish coast.
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Trethvor takes the form of a newspaper, which can be disassembled to produce an exhibition. It will feature practitioners working in the county, with photography that explores the landscape and the people that make up the diverse communities around the coastline of Cornwall.
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Keep an eye out for more soon, including ways to add your voice to the project.

It will be on display in the studio at Newlyn and The Exchange Gallery from Wednesday 19th to coincide with the ‘Seaside Photographed’ exhibition curated by Val Williams and Karen J Shepherdson.

Oli will be running workshops with schools and community groups in Cornwall. 1,000s of copies of the newspaper will be distributed, if you’d like some for your venue, or would like to host a pop-up show, drop Oli a line! Go to @trethvor for more info on the project and Oli’s demo vids!

SB: ”What I like very much about your images is that the groups you photograph seem on the one hand very composed and directed, as if the rocks or the beach act like a theatre stage, the figures perfectly in harmony with their environment, folded into it nearly.’ 

‘Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more’, thus Aldo Van Eyck set out the programme for an ideal interaction between architecture and our world. NU wants to create and offer both – a place and an occasion. A place for slow reading and quiet reflection, a hub for fragile creations and brittle thoughts.’ Excerpt from Foreword

Delighted that the first film, (made with real film!), I made with Rachael Jones, has been selected for the next Cornish Slates screening. Treyarnon was due to be screened as part of the event on 25 March 2020, but this is now being rescheduled for later in the year. Film made with the support of Cultivator Cornwall.

April 2020 – Artist Oliver Raymond-Barker set up Artists Supporting PPE to support Concept Shed run by Sam Lanyon and his non-profit team, who are mass producing face shields for the NHS, either at cost price or for free. To help support this endeavour a community of artists from across the South West have generously donated artworks for sale, with 100% of proceeds going directly to Sam’s CoVisor project. Thank you to the lovely supporter who brought my Windfall print, the initiative brought in over £1,500. www.crowdfunder.co.uk

THANK YOU Cultivator! I have been awarded an Individual Skills Development grant by Cultivator, Cornwall for online review sessions to support book in progress: Endless Reproduction. The work is from the years I was unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant. They merge the frustrations and increased medical interventions of trying to conceive, with the mechanical processes and failures of photography. The grant will enable me to connect directly with curators and publishers for advice on making the book a reality. www.cultivatorcornwall.org.uk

Agile Structures by Sovay Berriman and Sara Bowler was a great online conference over 4 days from 24 to 27 June 2020. Talks and resources from Cinzia Mutigli, Holly Davey, Shama Khanna and Ceri Hand amongst others. Lovely check-ins over breakfast with curators, producers and artists across the region. I introduced book in progress Endless Reproduction in the Speed Show on Friday 26 June. Thanks for the opportunity Sara and Sovay, great to share book for the first time with other presenters; Katy Richardson, Delpha Hudson, Helen Trevaskis and Kitty Hillier. Thank you everyone for the feedback. www.agilestructures.persona.co #agilestructures2020