About
Melanie Colosimo is an interdisciplinary artist, originally from Southeast New Brunswick, but has lived the last several years between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Windsor, Ontario. Her work employs drawings, miniatures and stop-motion video to negotiate the space around construction/ creation and themes of nostalgia and dislocation. She received a BFA from Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB and an MFA from the University of Windsor, in Windsor, ON. Her work has been exhibited and screened in galleries and festivals across Canada such as the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Atlantic Film Festival and most recently Eastern Edge Gallery. Currently she is the Exhibitions Coordinator at the Anna Leonowens Gallery.
For more information:
(e) mdc(at)melaniecolosimo.com
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Artist Statement:
Themes of longing and nostalgia are a catalyst for my work. I am not exploring nostalgia as a yearning for a specific place or thing, but as a desire for the intimacy that home represents. Through drawings and stop motion animation, I experiment with intermediate narratives using low-tech and often recycled materials to create an illusionary reality that focuses on the emotions tied to nostalgia and moments of homesickness.
My most recent body of work is based on my research on reflective nostalgia and my own experiences with homesickness and dislocation. It focuses mostly on the dangers of nostalgia, being trapped, notions of missing and displacement and how one may negotiate these feelings. The specter of Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario’s abandoned and decayed homes also looms over the work. But it is also about learning to let go. Being able to let go of the past is a step into being able to understand change. Here home is depicted in the past, not the future or the present, because you can’t move forward without letting go.
