>Melissa Stern – the mixed media artist that had a residency at the Washington Glass School this past summer has a new project/exhibition that she is seeking support.
The proposed exhibition integrates mixed material sculpture, contemporary literature, and audio technology – titled the “Talking Cure,” . The exhibition is scheduled to open in Seattle in March and in New York City in 2013.
The project title, “The Talking Cure,” takes its name from Sigmund Freud’s original description of psychoanalysis. The exhibition will consist of ten of Melissa’s sculptures each accompanied by an interactive audio track created by a literary collaborator.
Says Melissa: “My sculptures will be fabricated figures combining mixed materials, found objects, deeply drawn surfaces, and an abundance of personality. Seeing and saying, thinking and talking, will cure all your problems!
I have asked ten writers- poets, novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights- to each chose a sculpture to which they relate most intimately. Each is writing his or her imagined monologue of the goings on in the sculpture’s mind. These will then be transformed into audio recordings. A QR tag will accompany each sculpture. When the viewer points a Smartphone, Blackberry or I-Phone reading device at the QR tag it will trigger audio to hear the inner voice of the sculpture.
I have long been fascinated by what goes on in people’s minds when they look at art. What stories do they tell themselves? What emotions and memories are triggered? My work has always been psychological in nature. In the past I have made shows that deal explicitly with memory, childhood and family. By definition these subjects have a strong psychological bent. I am as interested in what others think the pieces are “saying” as in what has motivated me to make them.
In this project we will have a chance to hear what others think goes on in the minds of my sculptural ‘people.‘”
Click HERE to jump to Melissa’s Kickstarter project description.
Kickstarter is an online threshold pledge system for funding creative projects.