Video transcript
ARTEXPRESS 2020 - Student interview - 06. Melanie Hain

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MELANIE HAIN: Hi, my name's Melanie, and I studied visual arts at Warners Bay High School. So, my body of work, 'Fragility,' is all about my grandfather and how he suffered with Alzheimer's. I really wanted to create a work that captured the struggle that my family and he went through during that time.

The work itself is really fragile, and also incorporates a lot of coils and brains to simulate the memory, and/or the memory loss, that happens with the disease. My body of work, 'Fragility,' is symbolising all my years of working in ceramics, and all the skills I've gained from previous years, from the intricate forms, to the moulding of the brain itself, as well as just challenging the limits of what clay can do.

So, there were quite a few challenges I found in making my body of work. The first one was actually how to convey the message that I wanted to display to the audience. Originally, I had thought about doing a bunch of hourglasses, ceramic hourglasses, with time fading away to represent that memory loss through that way.

However, after a bit of experimentation, I didn't feel like it conveyed the message I wanted to. And, it didn't have that impact. And, I thought I could do a lot more.

So then, this is where my idea came with the brains and the coils. This is very challenging, as I had to find a clay that was smooth enough, so it didn't have all the rough edges, but was also strong enough, so it could actually support the structure.

As a result of the requirements that I needed, I did experiment with quite a few different clays. One of the clays that I used, it was really nice, really beautiful to use. The problem was, it didn't have the structural integrity that I needed. And, after a few weeks of playing around with it, and starting to create the piece, it actually collapsed in on itself.

So, I eventually ended up getting around to another clay, paper clay, and that was being absolutely perfect for it. It was able to hold the weight of the whole piece, as well as keeping all those fine intricate details.

One of the major artists which inspired me, not just for my HSC body of work, but through all of my ceramic career in the high school, her name is Jennifer McCurdy. One thing that really resonated with me, with her works, is how she pushed the boundaries of what the clay could do, making intricate organic forms.

My advice for anybody doing a body of work for the HSC is just keep every single idea you have, put it down. Just in the visual diary, do little sketches, write notes. So, every single idea you have, it's important to keep it. You will thank yourself later.