‘A/US’ - An exhibition by Western Australian contemporary jeweller, Melissa Cameron

Melissa Cameron reimagines the discarded steel detritus of suburbia, to reconnect and re-make her experience of place.

Virtual Artist Talk – 12noon – Sat Sept 12th

"My migrant experience was moving from Australia to the USA, and back again. These are politically very different places but share a lot in that they are now colonized, white-dominated and majority English-speaking countries. And they have lots of scrap steel lying on their footpaths, roads and in open spaces.

In walking and learning a town I find steel sticks out at me. Sometimes I collect it, documenting my finds as I go. Recently I’ve taken to incorporating it in my work.

In re-membering these objects I am making additional connections to the places I found them. Through changing the purpose and meaning of the finds I simultaneously alter and solidify my memories of those places. With this re-making my experience of place is continually being regenerated, and so continues to influence my present." - Melissa Cameron, 2020