Spun Time

Melanie Wiksell

At Jargon Projects, Chicago

January 21 – February 26, 2023

Allt kött är hö.

All flesh is hay. Unfixed, fugitive.

 

It always feels wrong to write about these things. You can’t give them form, even after they happen to you. There’s an insurmountable gap between making sense and making sense of.

 

A small wooden box is filled to its brim with wax, the wax pierced with cloves. The box — the corpse — is draped with elusion and armor. Smoke marbles its edges and buries itself in the wood’s grain. Silver chains fend off evil.

 

These things. Nebulous, or impossible. These things happen and you’ll know them when they do. It’s hard any other way.

 

Three wheels caught out of time. Soft and fluid, no longer turning, still in perpetual motion. They are all skin. Their thin veil now holds weight — a cloudy resinous mass wedged between this world and the next. Forms repeat and stretch themselves, resting but not at rest.

 

Things only become real right before they are known.

 

Four knives are sealed with black wax, prepared ceremoniously. Plant fibers belt a small notebook, the contents of which have been studied since before they were conceived. Objects preserved for another life.

 

These things are hay. Absolute, immutable.

 

 

 

Melanie Wiksell’s (b. Cyprus, lives and works in Sweden) work deals with rites and traditions associated with the history and culture of death and mourning. Through a synthesis of materiality and intangible cultural heritage, she explores collective and private narratives based on ideas of loss, memory, history and place. Recent solo exhibitions include Jakobsbergs Konsthall (Stockholm), Galleri Svarta Gran (Borlänge), and Galleri Gerlesborg (Bohuslän).

 

 

This will be the final exhibition at Jargon Projects.

— Ethan Kennemer

Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Melanie Wiksell Smoke over my eyes, 2023 Straw Dimensions variable
Melanie Wiksell The ground was thinned touch and out of time, 2022 Latex 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 in
Melanie Wiksell The ground was thinned touch and out of time, 2022 Latex 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 in
Melanie Wiksell Spun Time, 2020 Soap, drawer, foam rubber, book, ink, vegetable fibers, silver plated knives, sealing wax 23.6 x 13.8 x 5.5 in
Melanie Wiksell Calling the waters, 2022 Silver plated knife, wax, wood 11.8 x 9.1 x 2.4 in
Melanie Wiksell Calling the waters, 2022 Silver plated knife, wax, wood 11.8 x 9.1 x 2.4 in
Melanie Wiksell Draped dwelling, 2022 Birch bark, silver chain, sealing wax 19.6 x 19.6 in
Melanie Wiksell Draped dwelling, 2022 Birch bark, silver chain, sealing wax 19.6 x 19.6 in
Melanie Wiksell Wreaths of smoke, 2022 Wood, wax, cloves, silver chains, smoke 4.3 x 5.11 x 5.3 in
Melanie Wiksell Wreaths of smoke, 2022 Wood, wax, cloves, silver chains, smoke 4.3 x 5.11 x 5.3 in
Melanie Wiksell The ground was thinned touch and out of time, 2022 Latex 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 in
Melanie Wiksell The ground was thinned touch and out of time, 2022 Latex 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 in
Melanie Wiksell It wanders like a honeyed trace, 2023 Lamp, light bulb 24 x 6 x 6 in
Argent (in) absence, 2022 Cotton pillowcase, spray paint, straw, silk Dimensions variable

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