Machine | Icon | Monument

Machine | Icon | Monument is a large-scale ensemble performance installation about political will, in which a group of women build a massive structure in public space.

The identity of the structure has the potential to signify a totem, an organism, a meeting place and a monument. Through the real, sustained, physical exertion of actual construction, the performance engages with ideas about political thought, female momentum, social change and transformation, and the complexities and challenges they contained. The project seeks to engage with the specifics of how those experiences manifest in each location, and how they, in turn, connect to global movements.

Melanie Wilson is an award-winning, multi-disciplinary performance maker. Her work is founded on the contemporary interplay between sound art, experimental forms of composition, language and live performance, and is defined by a high degree of craft and detail, and underpinned by strong political interest. She collaborates with other artists to realise her ideas, so film, video and choreography also shape her work.

Melanie’s work has been presented in the U.K and internationally. She has collaborated with artists and companies including Katie Mitchell, Chris Goode, Clod Ensemble, Rotozaza, Shunt, Abigail Conway and visual artist Becky Beasley.