exhibit: text & images

Melanie Stewart’s two-part installation the Blissomatic Surreal is based on her own love-hate relationship with technology. As an installation artist, she embraces technological tools in the fusion of video, photo manipulation, and sound collages with traditional arts. Conversely she cringes at the bleed of professional life into personal life due to “always with us” and ”always on” technologies like email and cell phones. With the installation the Blissomatic Surreal the artist juxtaposes the contemporary fervor over accessibility and productivity, against a sentimental perspective about "significant transitions" during the sixties and seventies.

Her installation leaves the audience to confront their own personal map of the
breakdown between these two spaces.

 
Exhibit at the Museum of Art and History: April 17 2009 through May 15 2009

INTERNET 320x240 video

Video - INTERNET version 320x240
projected montage

The montage on the left is a 6 minute long sequence exploring the most significant issues of the sixties. The video is comprised of disturbing iconic media from the psychedelic and political movements. The top layer of the video has a silhouette of a woman whose vantage point shifts between longingly looking back at the promises made and broken, and turning her back on the past. The video was projected onto a wall. Viewers could sit back in the tie-died bean bag chairs and listen to the video through headphones.

warning: content is graphic visually and conceptually

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-show images: seed ideas, elements of the process, installation