The Disquieting Muses Again
In The Disquieting Muses Again (stories about grave goods, occupation, and the aberrant in the Connecticut River Valley) Melanie Willhide brings her audience to the post and beam two story brick mill owned by her uncles in central Connecticut. Built in 1869, it originally housed a silk ribbon factory, then became an auto parts distribution center, and later, a furniture warehouse. In 2003 it was converted by one uncle (an eccentric painter and dedicated art collector) into an apartment, artist studio, and impromptu gallery.
Hollis on Repeat, Archival pigment print, 2015, 20 x 27 inches, Edition of 5
A Hymn to Possibility, Archival pigment print, 2016, 22.5 x 30 inches, Edition of 5
Girls are for Loving, Archival pigment print, 2017, 27 x 37 inches, Edition of 5
Focusing here on the archetypal muse (in the painted portraits of women collected by her uncle, and the politically charged collages that cover the chestnut posts of the mill) Willhide revisits an earlier interest (Sleeping Beauties (the box under the bed) and The Belt of Venus) in image and text produced as a romantic or political meditation for their maker. As such, there is no concern with performing for an audience in this space. The surfaces are deteriorating and defaced. When considered against a cultural backdrop where identity, creativity, and personal space are commodified, the old mill is as peculiar as it is revolutionary.
1969, Nixon, Nice Cunt, Archival pigment print, 2016, 27 x 37 inches, Edition of 5
Brians Needed, Archival pigment print, 2017, 20 x 27.5 inches, Edition of 5
The Flower Painting Wall, Archival pigment print, 2016, 22.5 x 30 inches, Edition of 5
Vitality as Physical Ordeal, Archival pigment print, 2015, 30 x 24 inches, Edition of 5
The double portraits are made by layering two 4 x 5 negatives together (one of the frontside of a painting and another of the backside of a painting) to create one printed photograph. The second set of images focuses on the collages that cover the chestnut structural posts in the mill. Made in the 1960s by the factory workers on their lunch breaks, they utilize cut-out magazine images and text from “Playboy” and “Time Life Magazine.” Later, in the 1990s, they were defaced with crude drawings and text by an assistant of Willhide’s uncle. These photographs are made using a cheap scanner as a camera. The scans are composed by carefully moving the scanner (by hand) around, up, and down the four sides of the posts.
For some, creative expression is an attempt to hold a moment beyond the emotion or experience that inspired it. Similarly, the act of collecting can be seen as emotional in that it is often rooted in an investment in legacy. The “muses” here are presented through not only the creative expression of their original maker, but also through the veil of history and the decline of their surfaces. To enter the mill is not unlike discovering a tomb full of offerings to the gods. In the marred surfaces of The Disquieting Muses Again we are invited to reflect upon our own dedication to environments, muses, and histories.
Ribbon through the Eyes, Archival pigment print, 2016, 32 x 25.5 inches, Edition of 5
Fire in the Eyes, Archival pigment print, 2016, 20 x 17.5 inches, Edition of 5
Untitled (Corner of Female Portraits), Archival pigment print, 2016, 22.5 x 30 inches, Edition of 5
Sparkle Eyes, Archival pigment print, 2016, 30 x 26.5 inches, Edition of 5
Green Girl, Archival pigment print, 2016, 32 x 26 inches, Edition of 5