Photos from Installation at Tipton Gallery in Downtown Johnson City, TN.  A House Not of Our Choosing  Dates March 1-8, 2013.

http://vimeo.com/user17474012melisacadell
http://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1148

Cadell’s latest works are paper sculpture which represent her thoughts about confinement  and the transcendence  of the human body.  She skillfully presents the figure as a vessel which invites the viewer to contemplate more than the skin-like surfaces of her work. The sculptural installation is a new direction for Cadell and promises to offer the audience her signature, thought provoking request for dialogue.

Installation included 7 paper sculptures and slide projectors.  Glass slides were created with images from old medical journals which included studies of diseased and wounded skin, self portraits, paint, blood, and hair.

Figures were 3/4 life size cast.  All casts individually made on top of raw clay sculptures

The work presented  in the figure is metaphorically  defined as a house that contains our being until we start to understand our mortality.  Each is born into  a gender which may or may not match identity, race, sexual orientation, nationality, class and religious community . The list, of course, is not finite. We learn  boundaries within this architecture and either accept it or transcend it to become individuals who build an interior that moves outward to make challenges to the assumptions that  tend to limit us.

Casting Shadows

Hand Cast Chocolates served during opening.