Mel Doiron: Working Hands

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Mel Doiron, "Working Hands," 2019

Opening May 23, 2019 from 6-8pm.

This exhibition is part of the 2019 Medalta International Artists in Residence program.

Mel Doiron’s work is a reflection of her surroundings and experiences as a newcomer to Alberta. The sculptures she creates are reconstructions of functional things she sees at Medalta and around Medicine Hat: train cars, buildings, and old factory tools. These shapes resonate with Mel, and she finds beauty in their simplicity and utility. They’re created for function, without consideration for aesthetics.

Using brushes made from materials Mel has foraged such as animal hair, grasses and sticks she applies and scratch away white slip to expressively create patterns on plates. Inspired by techniques from historical pottery traditions such as Japanese hakame and English slipware, Mel brings these processes together in this body of work. These processes emphasize interaction, marks made by the maker, manifesting a record of how it was made. She sees this as creating a physical manifestation of her thoughts, feelings and anxieties about this political climate. As a queer woman in Alberta, she is constantly reminded in subtle and overt ways of her vulnerability in this new political context. The process of making these objects is as important as the finished product: it is the act of making that keeps her hands working in an attempt to calm her mind.

Artist Biography

Mel Doiron graduated from NSCAD University in 2018 with a major in Ceramics. Her work has been exhibited in both Canada and the USA, with solo exhibitions taking place at The Anna Leonowens Gallery, The Lunenburg School of the Arts, and the Women’s Studio Workshop. Her work history includes being a studio assistant at Nova Terra Cotta and NSCAD University, acting as gallery assistant at the Mary E. Black Gallery, and teaching at the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design and the Women’s Studio Workshop.