Melanie McLain

Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico

Artist statement

Inhabiting spaces as well as moving the body through space and context reinforces and creates behaviors, emotions and social dynamics between the individuals that relate to it, both actors and viewers. This can generate a sense of belonging, acceptance, limitations, or constrictions in the way one unfolds through space and relates to those who occupy it. Structures, patterns of approach, and routines are learned that delimit corporal possibilities and can make them circumstantial rather than experimental. This is reinforced through the design and configuration of the sites and the implicit symbology in the selection of textures, colors and spatial arrangement of the elements that make up a place. These structures and codes fuel certain power structures by creating hierarchies of space and those who inhabit them. It all forms part of a collective unconscious that constructs predetermined sensory experiences and initiates corporal memory in a given spatial context that reinforces the current societal norms. Questioning power structures through design and its relationship with the body are the main axis in the work development. My sculptures are thought to be activated and activate the space with different movement and body positions, asking both performer and viewer to move though it, take ownership of it and construct a space of intimacy and vulnerability to discover while sweeping the exhibition. Without leaving functionality aside, these sculptures have within themselves...

Artwork