Melissa Joseph
Melissa in her studio (photo credit Kenny Rivero)
Melissa Joseph is an artist and independent curator interested in connecting people through shared memories and experiences. Her work addresses themes of family history, diaspora, and the politics of how we occupy both physical and emotional spaces. Melissa’s work has been shown at the Delaware Contemporary, Woodmere Art Museum, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, and featured in Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, Artmaze. She is represented by REGULARNORMAL.
Can you tell us a bit about the process of making your work?
I work largely intuitively, and I feel like when I’m making I become a channel for collective memory or knowledge to pass through. It feels directed in a way that is unlike other things I do. Materially, I work with whatever is in my hands, but I acknowledge that I have a good bit of control of what those things are. Right now I am working in wool, ceramics and paper. With all three the process there is a dialogue with the materials. We respond to each other until there is some kind of resolution. I have been felting with wool for almost two years now, and it is the closest thing to a native language I have experienced in artmaking.
Tell us more about your work in the show.
Ceramic window with felt , stoneware, glaze, wool roving
The works Farah selected for the show were both made during quarantine. I had a difficult time envisioning the future, so I spent a lot of time looking through old photos from my archive. This is always part of my practice, but during Covid, I found myself doing it even more.
The images came from snaps we took while visiting India both as children and as young adults. One is of my cousin Appu with my Aunt Tessy in front of a car in the driveway at my grandparents' home sometime in the early 80s. It was just a normal day. There was nothing particularly notable about the place or time other than the fact that we were there, and we hadn’t been for a few years, and probably wouldn’t be again for a few more. The second is decades later on a visit to a famous temple in Thiruvananthapuram. We didn’t do many touristy things on our visits because there was always so much family to see. It is a very specific and hyperlocal version of India that I know. An amazing function of capturing this specificity is that it destroys tokenizing aspects of cultural identity and instead (I hope!) exposes a familiarity of the human condition.
2 from an ongoing series of ceramic airplane windows. 5 different stoneware clay bodies and glazes. (made at ArtShack)
What are some references you draw upon in your work? Are there any themes in particular that you like to focus on when creating?
I am particularly interested in how bodies are permitted to move through space. I have an almost romantic fascination with the idea that some people can have a spatial lack of self awareness. I am also interested in stories of diaspora and how we find connections through space and time via objects. There is something powerful about their physicality or “thingness” that goes back to my concern with bodies in space. Since April, airplane windows have been a recurring motif in my work. I started from a place of hopefulness, after I got my Covid vaccine. Now it is more ambiguous, but i am still drawn to the form and the strength that it holds in its ability to withstand extreme pressure.
Where are some of your favorite spaces that support contemporary art or design? Now that the art has an online presence, has that changed?
I am so grateful to be part of the REGULARNORMAL family. Danny Baez is really working hard to create a different kind of model for how we can have community within the commercial art world. He partners with other organizations and galleries that, in turn, become part of an extended network. Some of these include Art Noir, a powerhouse group of folks who are constantly doing amazing things, and Graham Wilson’s gallery, Swivel, that hosts community events all the time in addition to a strong and expanding exhibition program. I am also a member of Soloway Gallery in Williamsburg and I love that little space. They have really wonderful shows and are open to experimental works. Two other places that bring me a tremendous amount of joy are Dieu Donne in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Art Shack Ceramics in Bed Stuy. Both are full of incredibly talented, knowledgeable and generous folks that want to share with other artists.
When my uncle tried to hold hands with a cardboard cutout of the Pope, wool roving on cotton paper (made at Dieu Donne Workspace Residency)
Who are some of your favorite artists? Or who has been inspirational recently?
love so many artists! So many more than I could ever list here but I will give a bunch that I am always inspired by: Doris Salcedo, Bronwyn Katz, Cyrilla Mozenter, Fawn Krieger, Billy Zangewa, Anya Paintsil, Vivan Suter, Hugh Hayden, Jaishri Abachandani, Cristina Iglesias, Nairy Baghramian Lucas Simoes, Ann Hamilton, Kim Sooja, Benjamin Loyaute, Claudia Fontes, Annette Messenger, Emma Safir, Lucy Skaer, Simone Fattal, Savia Mahajan, Kennedy Yanko, Sheila Pepe, Shiva Mahadi, Chris Watts, Isa Genzken and Leonardo Drew and Marwan Rechmaoui. I am forcing myself to stop.
Do you have any shows coming up? Anything else you would like to share?
I do! Lots of stuff is in the pipeline for next year. I leave next week for the Fountainhead Residency in Miami which I am both honored and excited for. Then in December, I will be showing at NADA with REGULARNORMAL. It’s my first big art fair, so I’m a little nervous but it’s a dream come true! I will have a two person show at Turn Gallery in New York in January, where I will show some of the new ceramic work, and hopefully another solo with REGULARNORMAL early next year.
Melissa Joseph’s work is included in our show “Time Wont Tell,” November 3rd - December 30th, 2021. Visit her website here or on Instagram @melissajoseph_art.