MEL BLES – ISLANDS
2017-10-23Beginning as a simple exploration of images as two-dimensional objects, Mel Bles’ Islands, evolved into a rhythmic meditation on line, form, light and shape. The curves and crevices of bodies echo the rippling slopes of sand dunes, and close-up profiles steeped in shadow mirror the rolling drama of cloud formations arching across the sky. The continuous presence of lines thread the images in Islands together, painted purposefully across Bles’ nude models to trace their shapes and movements, subtly recalling the body and performance art of the 1970s. There are glimpses of gestures and hands, faces and expressions, but most often the people we see become mere bodies – sculptural figures enfolded into the images in the same way all other organic forms are, malleable matter to be used and reused. Eclipsing in and out of the shadows, these bodies appear as fragmented parts; islands of their own.
Opposite – Untitled, 2017
Exhibition runs through to November 25th, 2017
Webber Gallery
18 Newman St
W1T 1PE
