Freedom of Movement | 2022-
Triptych ‘Freedom of Movement (Not Waving)’ • Royal West of England Academy Photo Open, 2023, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol.
‘Freedom of Movement’ art installation at ‘Muse’ Boutique, Portishead • Exhibited as part of ArtPort 2023
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This statement is drenched in water imagery.
The sea: it’s age-old symbolism, constantly evoked in our visual, literary and aural cultures. The evolution of all life. The greatest metaphor of them all. A perpetual, uncompromising agent of change. The symbolism of the sea is myriad; we are saturated in it.
We are drowned, flooded, swept away. We fight wayward currents and are swamped by huge, unexpected waves. We float, aimlessly on the surface, or fear hidden depths. We walk on shifting sands or cannot touch the bottom. We watch tides turn, and loved ones carried away. We feel tidal waves of emotion, or submerge our feelings. We launch secrets and messages in hopeful bottles, and drown our sorrows. We search for safe harbour; something to anchor to; a port in a storm. We dip our toe in, cautiously, or strike out bravely on journeys of discovery to new shores. We launch our lifeboats and hope for rescue.
This body of work represents a sea change in my work, a breakthrough in my life and practice: a watershed moment where I finally gave myself permission to make the work I wanted to make. ‘Freedom of Movement’ has evolved from an examination of my existence and practice, post-motherhood, to a far wider conversation about the visible and invisible forces that have influence over the lives of women today.
Made against a backdrop of the “cut your hair” protests in Iran, the daily diminishment of women’s rights and lives in Afghanistan, and the endless, sad parade of small, hopeless relics of desperate overnight channel crossings in unfit vessels, my own lived experience often feels laughably self indulgent. So I make this work for those others, for all of us - women, mothers, girls, daughters, babies - because I have the luxury to be able to do so.
Mellony Taper, 2023.
The sea: it’s age-old symbolism, constantly evoked in our visual, literary and aural cultures. The evolution of all life. The greatest metaphor of them all. A perpetual, uncompromising agent of change. The symbolism of the sea is myriad; we are saturated in it.
We are drowned, flooded, swept away. We fight wayward currents and are swamped by huge, unexpected waves. We float, aimlessly on the surface, or fear hidden depths. We walk on shifting sands or cannot touch the bottom. We watch tides turn, and loved ones carried away. We feel tidal waves of emotion, or submerge our feelings. We launch secrets and messages in hopeful bottles, and drown our sorrows. We search for safe harbour; something to anchor to; a port in a storm. We dip our toe in, cautiously, or strike out bravely on journeys of discovery to new shores. We launch our lifeboats and hope for rescue.
This body of work represents a sea change in my work, a breakthrough in my life and practice: a watershed moment where I finally gave myself permission to make the work I wanted to make. ‘Freedom of Movement’ has evolved from an examination of my existence and practice, post-motherhood, to a far wider conversation about the visible and invisible forces that have influence over the lives of women today.
Made against a backdrop of the “cut your hair” protests in Iran, the daily diminishment of women’s rights and lives in Afghanistan, and the endless, sad parade of small, hopeless relics of desperate overnight channel crossings in unfit vessels, my own lived experience often feels laughably self indulgent. So I make this work for those others, for all of us - women, mothers, girls, daughters, babies - because I have the luxury to be able to do so.
Mellony Taper, 2023.