Through the use of drawing, painting, intricate patterns and interconnected lines, I create an idealised space that becomes a stage set for contemporary plays. These plays are built upon a structure of personal experiences, memory, observation and cinematic references. It is narrated from the view point of a group of re-occuring motifs – female protagonists who are in – meshed, and joined one by one, rather like a mosaic. these girls are knotted and patched together by braided hair and are stitched in at the waist like siamese twins referencing patchwork quilts from the 1800s. The girls gather together in a setting of an almost idealised past – where time has ceased to move on and they hover tangibly between elements of observational and imaginative line work. Here the women begin to conceive life as a fabric of relations and they look at the latent structure that rules them. Recently this structure has been built upon themes of sexuality, religion, religious folklore, female hysteria, and the rituals that women out of hope and longing adorn. These ceremonial rites include rituals from the past – such as only being allowed to cut your hair on the day a full moon falls, or ancient fertility rituals. I compare these to the modern day ceremonies that have been fostered in our hyper – sexualised, instagramable world and I hope to give a glimmering insight into the mounting tension and the unwholesome intensity of what the imprisonment of being a girl really is.

The women profiled in the works will all hail from different walks of life and social class and so I feel the paintings will create a sense of belonging, they will construct a narrative about journey, spirit and how women become inextricably linked.

Exhibitions at Gallery 286

• 2018
• 2016

“Melissa Kime poetically invents and draws the most convincing posture of the  internal life we all lead. It is the secret, undeclared life, the  quiet ruminations, the cares, concerns and dreams we all share.

She was always in my class “The Body Clothed” at The Royal Drawing School and there she took ideas and absolutely ran with them, using ink and watercolour with a twining, winding, playful line which remained deadly serious and powerful. For sheer invention, we were all quite in awe of her, and not a bit surprised when the Royal College gave her a place to study as a postgrad. ”

Susan Wilson, artist/tutor

Exhibitions at Gallery 286

• 2018
• 2016