RWA Photo Open, RWA Bristol, 2023.
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Mellony Taper SWAc
b. 1975, London
Mellony Taper is a British interdisciplinary artist. Her work has been exhibited widely across the UK and is regularly selected for prize exhibitions including: the Royal West of England Academy Open; the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; East Quay Open; the RWA Photo Open and the Bath Open Art Prize. Her work is included in ProCreate Project’s living archive of work by artist-mothers and formed part of the 2023 series of ProCreate Project Public Activations across London.
In 2023 Taper was invited to create work for the exhibition “Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City” curated by Turner Prize-winner Lubaina Himid MBE, during its tenure at the Royal West of England Academy. The show included works by Bristol-based female artists including Valda Jackson and Beth Carter, alongside works from the Arts Council Collection by Cornelia Parker, Sophie Calle, Mona Hatoum, Magda Starwarska-Bevan, Anne Tallantire, et al.
Taper was elected an Academician of the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in 2024, and has been affiliated with the Royal West of England Academy via its elective Artist Network since 2019.
b. 1975, London
Mellony Taper is a British interdisciplinary artist. Her work has been exhibited widely across the UK and is regularly selected for prize exhibitions including: the Royal West of England Academy Open; the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; East Quay Open; the RWA Photo Open and the Bath Open Art Prize. Her work is included in ProCreate Project’s living archive of work by artist-mothers and formed part of the 2023 series of ProCreate Project Public Activations across London.
In 2023 Taper was invited to create work for the exhibition “Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City” curated by Turner Prize-winner Lubaina Himid MBE, during its tenure at the Royal West of England Academy. The show included works by Bristol-based female artists including Valda Jackson and Beth Carter, alongside works from the Arts Council Collection by Cornelia Parker, Sophie Calle, Mona Hatoum, Magda Starwarska-Bevan, Anne Tallantire, et al.
Taper was elected an Academician of the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in 2024, and has been affiliated with the Royal West of England Academy via its elective Artist Network since 2019.
Following the birth of her daughter a decade ago, Taper found the genesis of her work constrained by domestic borders. Lacking both time and space to make physical work, she turned to lens and screen: making digital, photographic works that manifested themselves in versions of the memorabilia, fabrics and domestic objects of a home; works that reference family photos, clothing, household objects and linens. Taper refers to this body of works by the umbrella label of ‘Domestic Use Only’: loaded with implicit ambivalence regarding her place as an artist in both the home and the wider world.
Today, Taper’s interdisciplinary practice sits uneasily at the intersection of trad and new media. Often working with digital photography as a raw material, she is increasingly interested in how digital and lens-based works manifest themselves in the world: challenging traditional boundaries of material representation and demanding to be able to work outside any single ‘maker definition’, making works that don’t much care about accepted definitions of photography, sculpture, drawing or moving image.
Today, Taper’s interdisciplinary practice sits uneasily at the intersection of trad and new media. Often working with digital photography as a raw material, she is increasingly interested in how digital and lens-based works manifest themselves in the world: challenging traditional boundaries of material representation and demanding to be able to work outside any single ‘maker definition’, making works that don’t much care about accepted definitions of photography, sculpture, drawing or moving image.
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LINKS
‘Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City’
https://artscouncilcollection.org.uk/exhibition/found-cities-lost-objects
ProCreate Project Archive
https://archive.procreateproject.com/archive/
‘Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City’
https://artscouncilcollection.org.uk/exhibition/found-cities-lost-objects
ProCreate Project Archive
https://archive.procreateproject.com/archive/