"My practice involves creating wearable and sculptural textile creations using primarily recycled and discarded materials. Clothing made from recycling appeals to me as an anarchistic antidote to Western consumption. I often use these creations in performance.
As an Outsider, a person who suffers from mental illness I have always felt more eccentric than society allows. I find it most difficult to relate to what our society dictates as to how women should behave. My practice is subversive in that I play with pre existing gender codes. Expressing myself publicly in a transformist way is a liberating impulse.
Modifications through clothing, embellishment and self adornment has always been essential to my existence. My practice of textile and wearable art is also a respectful homage to the generations of craftswomen before me, who created out of necessity. I create because it is the only thing that seems to keep my mind
more...balanced. My works tell personal stories of my sexuality, my strange life, my complex psyche. It is my journey of being unique in a world full of social institutions that try to control us all.
Performance has recently developed as part of my practice and it is a visceral response to the times we live in as well as the fact that my art/life cannot be separated. During spoken-word performances I feel as though I can add complexity and depth to my art creations."
As an Outsider, a person who suffers from mental illness I have always felt more eccentric than society allows. I find it most difficult to relate to what our society dictates as to how women should behave. My practice is subversive in that I play with pre existing gender codes. Expressing myself publicly in a transformist way is a liberating impulse.
Modifications through clothing, embellishment and self adornment has always been essential to my existence. My practice of textile and wearable art is also a respectful homage to the generations of craftswomen before me, who created out of necessity. I create because it is the only thing that seems to keep my mind
more...balanced. My works tell personal stories of my sexuality, my strange life, my complex psyche. It is my journey of being unique in a world full of social institutions that try to control us all.
Performance has recently developed as part of my practice and it is a visceral response to the times we live in as well as the fact that my art/life cannot be separated. During spoken-word performances I feel as though I can add complexity and depth to my art creations."
Mel Kelly
"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring" - Marilyn Monroe
"Everything is such a sort of stoned state... I walk around with a bunch of violets in my hand and a sledgehammer and a grain of sand in my head. I am happy." - Brett Whiteley
"Everything is such a sort of stoned state... I walk around with a bunch of violets in my hand and a sledgehammer and a grain of sand in my head. I am happy." - Brett Whiteley
