Melissa Procter is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans sculpture, collage, and graphic design. She is currently working part-time as an Information Assistant at the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green, an environment where she is able to utilise her knowledge of art to enhance the experience of the visitors. She has participated in various group exhibitions at the university, including Locked In: Life in a Pandemic in 2021 and Unpacked in 2022, and her own solo show, Balancing Act, in 2021.

 

Featuring an array of objects and images, Procter’s work centres around themes of ecology, geology, and materiality in order to question man’s increasingly complex relationship with the natural world. Various dialogues are at play between several juxtaposing elements: 2D and 3D; organic and synthetic; internal and external; past and future. Boundaries are blurred as one element crosses into another, positioning the work in a state of flux, irrevocably shifting back and forth, never fully resolved. The term ‘plastiglomerate’ is fundamental to Procter’s research and practice. Referring to a stone that contains a fusion of sedimentary fragments and plastic matter, plastiglomerates embody hybridity and interconnectivity, providing a clear example of the coalescence of natural and manmade worlds that is so pertinent at this time in history. Through this research and an engagement with the physicality of the material encounter of everyday objects, such as rubber gloves and tin cans, Procter aims to displace the familiarity of these items by situating them within a context that differs from their usual function in order to provoke questions in the mind of the viewer. 

 

Website: melissaprocter.com

Instagram: @melissaprocter_art

Email: procter_mel@yahoo.co.uk