When she's not in her studio, Christchurch artist Melissa Macleod can be found foraging coastal flower seeds around New Brighton.
She takes the seeds home and cultivates them in a greenhouse before finding ways to incorporate them into her photography and sculptural work.
Visitors to the most recent Scape Public Art Festival in Christchurch might have experienced her show - 'on an east wind, 144 bags of sea air', where she captured the air in giant plastic containers that visitors walked through.
Melissa is spending most of this year researching and imagining rather than making, after receiving the $30,000 Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation award.
on an east wind, 2020-21, Public Installation. Sea Air (New Brighton), Dunnage bags, aluminium, plastic joints, cable ties. 1200 x 2500 x 2200 (each structure), Awly Building, Scape Public Art, Christchurch.
Dry Run, 2016, Performance over 2 hours. Rimu floorboards (kitchen section), polystyrene, paddle, trolley structure, wheel. Dimensions variable. New Brighton Estuary, Christchurch.
Dead Wood, 2018, Installation. Flood Socks (chip from drowned Pine trees – Brighton estuary, mixed wood chip, EnviroCore filtering felt), plastic ties, ground staples, 1.2 x 1.5 x 8m. A part of Overlay, 2018, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch.
Drawing water, 2018, Action: Brighton Estuary. Photograph on Fujifilm lustre paper, ed of 3, 430 x 630mm.
The Fall (#2), 2019-20. Sand (x24 samples from prone New Zealand coasts), nylon, aluminium runners. 400 x 800 x 3000mm. A part of Te Wheke, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch.
Gazania/ Coastal Daisy (Treasure Flower)
