La Geometrie Series
I regard myself as the architect of my own worldview. Yet the foundation of my knowledge is based on truths discovered by others, truths that I have learned from books and teachers, and not from my own lived experience.
I accept and use the tenets of Cartesian geometry without question in order to create my work. I create plans for jewellery in AutoCad, using a code of point and line, on what amounts to an invisible - and borderless – plane.
I learned the basics of this geometry as a young student, but now I rely on intermediaries to facilitate my use of it. So, despite my dependence on this system of mathematics, how much of its teachings am I consciously aware of implementing in my work? I cannot say. Is it because my use of it has become second nature, or because I never knew the extent of its reach? I don’t know.
I decided to go right back to basics. I sought to rediscover the truths that allow my works to materialise, beginning at the point where philosopher and mathematician René Descartes thought himself, and then the blank plane, into existence.
The drawings - come works - as arranged before you, are the result of this search.
In geometry I trust.
Melissa Cameron, April 2012
Recycled Object Series
Patterns, regular repeated organisations of elements, are omnipresent. Appearing in the natural and human-engineered worlds, they form an ever-evolving series, one that is cross-linked through history, yet never in stasis as each strand gradually mutates. Cameron’s patterns similarly iterate, around a motif determined by the object undergoing transformation, or other outside themes. Her precision, aided by the strict application of geometry, is founded in the clarity of her vision. As in nature, a vacuum is abhorred, so the patterns morph or reiterate to continue their evolution across the plane. The pattern cuts the object and forces its revaluation and reassembly. The flexible ties that now bind the parts perform a delicate balancing act, reminiscent of the inextricable interdependence of all matter.
BanStopSaveFightSolve
The lexicon of the badge is specific and short. Short also describes the length of words used, sculpted to convey maximum meaning in minimum space. The work BanStopSaveFightSolve interrogates the didactic language at play in badges, using terms that have had broad cultural significance (take Ban the Bomb and Save the Whale as two prime examples), as a way of investigating how meaning is conveyed through this format. Pleasantries are dispensed with, as is nuance or subtlety, when a sensitive issue is boiled down to an abrupt word-symbol. The meaning is thus re-sized, not for the benefit of the message, but to be appropriate for wear.