Osmosis Artists

Metamorphosis

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Janelle Mendham, H 42.5cm, W 41.5cm, d 9cm (dimension variable)

Janelle Mendham

I am currently completing a Master of Fine Arts higher research degree at the University of Tasmania. Having being raised on a farm in country NSW and lived in Sydney, I have now made Hobart my home. Hobart allows me to live under the protection of the mountain, at the edge of the sea, and experience the working docks of Hobart as a daily part of life. Life in Hobart is lived in accordance with the seasons: from the first blossoms of spring where people shed their winter skins; through to the celebrations in summer; the harvests of autumn; and retreat into our shelters and time of reflection in winter. This living in accord with nature with its constant change is essential to my life and my art practice.

Artist Statement

My current art practice seeks to give form and image to the liminal experience of human change. My works usually find resolution in sculptural form though there origins are nearly always found in drawing. My practice is based in play and relies on chance. I draw subjects from my immediate environment, allowing them to morph and change in response to subconscious expression. Other works find their genesis in ancient, indigenous or eastern subjects, symbols and myths. Forms and patterns in nature, and cultures who view human as a part of nature, inspire my practice, and inform my search for a language based in nature that describes our experience in the world.

My work in Osmosis, ‘Metamorphosis’ is made of mussel shells. The mussel is a part of my local diet, and fills the waters around Bruny. I had collected the shells for their colour and quality, and their shape when opened is that of a butterfly reflecting my subject of transformation. When the butterfly shells are placed inside each other, the form spirals to resemble an eel, a millipede, or a snake, providing another generation of the metamorphosis: from mussel, to butterfly, to snake. The shells are the remains of a creature eaten and transformed through our bodies and may serve as a reminder that there is no life without death. Metamorphosis takes the archetypal form of regeneration of the ouroboros – a local material that takes a form that crosses cultures, time and place.