Opening Night October 1, running until October 29

unnatural, naturally – Lauren Simeoni and Melinda Young
With a delight in finding expressions of the ‘natural’ in the ‘unnatural’ (and vice versa), Simeoni and Young exploit the potential of found objects in their work, playing with colour and materiality. The conceptual ideas for this exhibition have been developed using a shared sketchbook, which migrates back and forth between their studios. The exhibition features work with a focus on botany and the body – re-presenting and re-configuring natural forms via artificial conduits. Creating, utilising and manipulating non-specific artificial objects: changing the unnatural to the natural, the artists have developed playful bodies of new work which speak to each other through an excited engagement of ideas and material sensibility.

Lauren Simeoni (Adelaide) and Melinda Young (Sydney) create work that is a homage to the senses – a wearable passport to a whimsical ‘other’ reality. Exploring the potential for unexpected narrative, their works often have a sly subversive humour. Finding the beautiful and seductive in what is otherwise thought of as mundane, toying with mass-production processes and reconfiguring mass-produced objects to create wearables of seductive beauty. Simeoni has a Bachelor of Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) from Canberra School of Art and undertook a Design Associateship at the JamFactory in Adelaide. Young has a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts. Both artists exhibit widely in Australia and overseas.

Anna Davern

Richard Burns, Anna Davern, Amanda Fox, Lisa Furno, Stephen Gallagher, Pennie Jagiello, Elfrun Lach, Jane Pollard and Mel Young

at Pablo Fanque

November 4 – 24, 2008

Recycled, renewed, reborn is a group exhibition of wonderful works by Australian artisans with a penchant for ethical creations. Using recycled materials and making ethical creations does not mean that design and beauty are forsaken.

Melinda Young, Smoke Neckpiece, 2008, Polyester Sewing Thread, Smoky Quartz, Oxidised 925 Silver

Melinda Young, Blood Neckpiece, 2008, Polyester Sewing Thread, Dyed Quartz, Oxidised 925 Silver

Recycled, reused and renewed looks at artworks in their own right; they just happen to be made from loved or reinvented materials. I have been increasingly captivated with the innovative use of recycled resources in jewellery and object making, and while I appreciate the growing relevance and need to explore the possibilities of working with existing materials, this factor can sometimes overshadow the artworks created.

Pablo Fanque

Melinda Young at Pablo Fanque

Despite the restrictive guidelines of Take a ball of thread… there is a definite sense of freedom to each work. The artist’s intention is to bring about spontaneous responses to found objects, materials and methods and the project has become a vehicle for pushing and re-working jewellery and craft based techniques. The works themselves provide unexpected juxtapositions of the precious and non-precious, alongside an exploration of meaning and the ongoing conceptual concerns in the artist’s practice. The common thread of pink brings with it a consideration of the multiplicity of playful and serious significances attached to the colour and the material.
Melinda Young won the Established Artist category in the inaugural Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Australia NSW Profile Award earlier this year for pieces from this body of work. The artist has a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) and a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. She has participated in over 75 exhibitions in Australia and overseas since 1997 and currently teaches in the Jewellery and Object Design Department at the Design Centre, Enmore.