Acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
acrylic on wood and photographic film, 24.3 x 14.8 cms
In the aftermath of losing my second child to FSIDS in 2006 I had a compulsion to make abstract paintings without any conscious control. After finishing the works I found that people and animals had manifested themselves within my paintings without my conscious awareness.
Dylan's loss was unexplained and I sought answers through a medium. I began to train in her “circle”, where she encouraged me to bring my drawing materials and invited people to our “sittings”. My hand would move intuitively, knowing what colour to pick up and what mark to put down. I was not aware of what was being manifested as it was happening but afterwards it was clear that the drawings were rich in accurate information about the person's life.
Meanwhile, my own practice developed and I began to make what I call Auto Trance Portraits. These paintings encapsulate an individual’s life, inspired by photographs, samples of handwriting or purely by concentrating on a specific person. Since childhood I have instinctively known things about people and I enjoy helping them in their transformation. Here is a nice mention of my Deptford Story pieces in the Art Newspaper from 2014: http://ec2-79-125-124-178.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/blogs/Deptford-stories/36264
I am also a practising mesmerist and hypnotherapist.
I made this diptych whilst listening to a couple chatting in their kitchen in Australia. When the husband spoke, I painted on the lower painting and when the wife spoke, the piece above. I made a little painting of a QR code that has a link to the conversation (also found here: https://soundcloud.com/user-894812161/isy-mike-09062022-0949 ) to accompany the piece.
2022, acrylic on wood, 180 x 70cms
This painting was made whilst tuning in to a carte de visite photograph of a young woman. It is very energetic and open, yet also quite calm. There is a red heart-like form filled with purple flaming strokes that seem to express a very loving, spiritual nature. There is a buck or deer head on the centre right and numerous characters can be spotted throughout.
2018, Acrylic on paper 84.1 x 59.4
This painting was made whilst tuning in to a Victorian carte de visit of a young man who has exceptionally sad eyes who looks effeminate. The painting has many sea references, such as the seal that can be seen in the lower right next to the whale whose breathing hole is spouting water. In the bottom left his face in profile can be detected by the eyes, nose, mouth and chin. There seem to be splashes and a big blue question mark surrounds a purple shape that includes two heads at the top of the painting. It appears that someone was pushed or fell or jumped off a cliff edge in to the sea. Intriguing!
2018, acrylic on paper, 81 x 59.4 cms
This painting was made whilst tuning in to a carte des visites of a young woman. The painting appears to have a lot of sunshine and warmth, particularly to the left. The right seems to contain more heather and Scottish colours (the photograph was taken there). I wondered whether she had been brought up somewhere Mediterranean, for instance, Italy and then migrated to Scotland. Horses and children are intimated in the piece and there is a sort of spiritual showering happening on the bottom right of the painting.
This was made whilst tuning in to a man wearing a suit and a watch on a chain. There are many characters that inhabit it, the most obvious being the Mahican Indian and an oriental-looking person. There are many birds and creatures as well as a buck with horns which can be seen on the bottom right. There is an other worldly atmosphere to this painting.
2018, Acrylic on paper 84.1 x 59.4
I love the narrative in the bottom right corner of her, as a child, communing with a dear. I get the feeling that she was quite a free spirit but also very expressive. There were many layers to her. If you look at the middle top of the picture you can see several faces and I think these were all her. There are grapes in the bottom left of the picture. This can indicate a love of drinking wine. There is an older woman's face on the top left, which is more feint and that appears to be of an older, very caring woman.
2015-2017, Gouache on card, ink on glass, photograph, 42.5 x 62.2 cms
This photograph was taken in the Clapham Road from the animals that can be seen in the painting, I get the impression that she moved to Africa. There are grapes in the bottom left which give the indication that she either loved her wine or was involved in wine making.
2015-2017, Gouache on card, ink on glass, photograph, 36.7 x 50.1 cms
Her name was on the reverse of her photograph. The painting has quite a hemmed in feeling. Mostly it is outlined and I get the sense that she was quite restricted. Maybe she was a maiden aunt who was obliged to care for her parents. The face in the top left of the painting appears chaotic but creative. I think she found it hard to take time to fulfil herself. The centre shows a place to escape to - a place with water and birds.
2015-2017, Gouache on card, ink on glass, photograph, 41.8 x 62.2 cms
This was a loving and warm woman. She and her children are shown on the left. There are a lot of birds. I think she may have kept cockatiels and/or budgies. The profile on the bottom right indicates a very loving and grounded nature. It looks to be a very happy life.
2015-2017, Gouache on card, ink on glass, photograph, 37.6 x 57 cms
The title of this work relates to some writing on the back of the photograph. She sits very proudly in front of her doorway. Interestingly, in the painting there are a number of horses. there is a figure on horseback right in the centre. At the base of the horse's head is a human head bent back in an ecstatic state. My impression is that she was quite a figure within her community. A lot of people flow around her. To the right of the central horse is a sheep's head. The ecstatic face looks in deep spiritual rapture. I think she had very healing and loving hands. To the left of that head is a figure seated and someone behind (wearing a hat) appears to be doing something to them. I suspect that was Martha herself giving healing.
2015-2017, Gouache on card, ink on glass, photograph, 34.4 x 38.2
This painting was made whilst tuning in to an "engagement slip" for the J. Stone & Co foundry in Deptford of a Helena Dunning on 3rd February 1926. The painting seems to portray a young woman facing forward (to the left) and backwards (to the right). A head in profile in indigo is right at the heart of the painting looking up. There is a dancing, sensual quality about the figures whilst the head gives a sense of spiritual connectedness.
2014, gouache on card
Nice mention in The Art Newspaper about this body of work: http://ec2-79-125-124-178.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/blogs/Deptford-stories/36264
This painting was made whilst tuning in to a slip of paper signed on 16th November 1925 and with the date of birth and address of a Frederick Sharp who had been an employee of the J. Stone & Co. foundry in Deptford where I exhibited and performed mesmerism. The painting appears to show a figure (who I believe to be Frederick looking at another figure (who I think is a woman) who is looking at a face that seems to be in another dimension. My thoughts on this are that he was in love with a woman who seems to be still in love with someone who had passed away. If you look to the right and particularly the bottom right there appear to be many fishes, like trout. I was of course, not aware that I was painting any of this at the time.
2014, gouache on card
This work is 5 x 4 x 5 cms and is exhibited in Minuscule, Venice Biennale until July 2019
In 2007 I began training with a medium in her circle. After a period she invited people to our sittings and I was encouraged to bring my drawing materials and make what was termed auragraphs of each of them. I found that my hand would move intuitively, knowing what colour to pick up and what mark to put down. I was not aware of what was being manifested as it was happening but afterwards it was clear that the drawings were rich in accurate information about the person's life.
These works were made during our exhibition Soul Sessions at St John’s on Bethnal Green where I made drawings for visitors and discussed their meaning at length with them. As each drawing was made they were installed on clip boards on the church walls using pre-existing holes in respect of its listed status. The keys on the right are to help the viewer penetrate their meaning. The drawings have 9 areas as they are divided in to three sections vertically, the lowest third being the physical, middle is the emotional and the top being the spiritual. The righthand third is the past, the middle third the present and the lefthand third, the future.
filmmaker: Rachel Davies, 2019
I am a qualified Mesmerist and have used mesmerism both clinically and within my art practice for several years. In my performance work I tend towards using it when there is an historical or a geographical link to the venue.
This was performed in October 2017 in the car park beneath Cavendish Square. My aim was to emulate the clinic of Baron Dupotet of Sennevoy who may have brought mesmerism to England and practised in Cavendish Square in the 1840s:
Site Specific Performance of MESMERISM (Animal Magnetism)
In honour of BARON DUPOTET DE SENNEVOY, I will be giving demonstrations of MESMERISM in CAVENDISH SQUARE car park from Eleven to One o’clock and half-past One to Three o’clock on Saturday and Sunday.
If you would like to participate, I will instruct you to sit in the chair, look into my eyes and I will then mesmerise you. At the end of the experience, I will count from ten to one and when I reach one, your eyes will open. We will then discuss your experience.
Melissa Alley Tecklenberg
This wording accompanied my performance, Vortex, in October 2017. The text on the left is a copy of the flyer the Baron used to promote his clinic in Cavendish Square in the 1840s.
For the exhibition, Deptford Stories, I performed mesmerism in honour of The Sleeping Boy of Deptford. On the wall I had the following wording which was an original article from The Public Ledger, April 5th 1844, Newfoundland, Canada:
The Sleeping Boy of Deptford
“On Friday week, as James Cooke, an errand boy in the employ of Messrs. Smith and Sons, hat manufacturers, Deptford-bridge, was sitting with his young master in the warehouse the latter (who has recently attended several lectures on mesmerism,) said, “Jem, I’ll mesmerize you; look me in the face.” The boy, not fearing anything, complied, and his master having made the requisite passes for about three minutes, because alarmed at seeing his head drop and his eyes close. He was now in a state of mesmeric coma, and Smith being greatly alarmed sent for Mr Taylor, a gentlemen who has been lecturing on mesmerism at the Greenwich Literary Institution. That gentleman immediately attended, and after trying his utmost skill for some hours succeeded in opening the lad’s eyes.
He was visited by numerous medical men; amongst the number were Mr. Downing, the police surgeon; Mr. Hope, of the Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital ship; the Messrs. Hope of Deptford. A report was spread through Greenwich and Deptford that he had expired, and in consequence, Mr. Inspector Douglas, of the R division of police, with several constables proceeded to the house of Messrs. Smith, where the boy was lying in the drawing-room; but finding that he was still alive they returned, and kept a strict watch upon the case.
It is remarkable that during the influence of the coma, the boy appeared gifted with the faculty generally denominated clairvoyance. With his eyes fast closed, he was able to speak and he James Cooke) recognised persons and objects with as much facility as if they were optically visible to him. He named persons before they entered the room and pretty accurately described places that he never saw. Although he never had visited the Painted-hall at Greenwich, nor the exhibition of Madam Tussaud, in Baker-street, during the time he was mesmerized he actually described the interior of both these exhibitions; and the accuracy of his detail of them was truly surprising. He has expressed a strong desire to be mesmerised again and Mr. Smith, acting upon the advice of Dr. Elliotson will permit the lad’s wishes in this respect to be gratified. The lad is intelligent in his appearance; he is 13 years of age.’
In honour of this extraordinary case of mesmerism, I invite you to experience its effects. So sit down, take a deep breath and close your eyes.
Melissa Alley Tecklenberg
The title of the exhibition, Embracing the Underdog inspired me to combine mesmerism with another of my performance tools, singing to make a site specific work for Chinese New Year. I selected six songs with a positive message and numbered them. Once approached, I suggested the person throw a dice with the intention that the number of the song with the most appropriate message be thrown. I then proceeded to sing that song with the intention of embedding its (positive) message within their subconscious mind.
This performance was part of Coming Good: Come Hell or High Water, June 2019
https://www.waterloofestival.com/coming-good
Sessions: The Park Keeper’s Room is a result of Melissa using hypnosis with a friend to help them recover memories from their childhood. In this particular case they relived the first time they drank alcohol and its consequences, reminding us of the transitional period between childhood and adulthood. Melissa is a fully qualified and registered hypnotherapist and precautions were taken to prevent ‘false memory syndrome’. The subject has given full consent for the material to be used in this video.
It is part of Empire II, curated by Vanya Balogh and has been shown at the Venice Biennale in 2017, Berlin, Brussels, Tallinn, Coastal Currents in Hastings and will be on show in Madrid, Paris and Zagreb in 2018.
Manifestations
“To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.” Duchamp
These paintings use the methods I employed for the Loss series, where in a heightened awareness I use colour and rhythm, allowing the images to emerge. I seek to play with the interface between figuration and abstraction, coming in and out of focus through rhythm, colour, shape and texture. The work is never fixed, but in a state of flux. If the viewer relaxes their mind, marks and gestures can describe a face, or a profile, animal or creature. The paintings are catalysts that stimulate the subconscious mind to reveal archetypes, and yet, in a different state of mind, different things can appear. The images are not pre-conceived, I get into my rhythm, applying colour and brushstrokes, aiming to express the intuitive and spontaneous, whilst honouring the rich cultural heritage of my background.
As Francis Bacon said, “It is a continuous thing between what may be called luck or hazard, intuition and the critical sense.”
acrylic on wood, 44.2 x 40.7 cms
Acrylic on Wood, 35.5 x 25.5 cms
acrylic on paper, 21.5 x 18 cms
acrylic on paper, 29 x 21 cms
acrylic on paper, 32 x 22.5 cm
acrylic on paper, 35.5 x 25.5 cms
acrylic on wood
“Illustrated form tells you through the intelligence immediately what the form is about, whereas a non-illustrated form works first upon sensation and then slowly leaks back in [to] the fact.” Francis Bacon
In 2006, I lost my second son to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In my devastation, I left behind any notions of consciously making recognisable figures in my work. My painting was used as a vehicle to explore loss and separation. With Sudden Infant Death Syndrome aka “cot death”, one is left with shock, uncertainty and disbelief, so I found myself enquiring into notions of death and (de)parting, choosing to concentrate on evoking energy, whilst aiming to commune with and communicate “the other”, whatever that may be.
In a heightened awareness I used colour and rhythm, allowing the images to emerge. The paintings became very loose and fluid and as I studied them, I observed faces, shapes and relationships playing out dramas I wasn’t conscious of, but somehow parallel to what I was going through.
This approach made the act of creating extremely surprising and exciting, whilst giving me a sense of trust in the act of “letting go” in my work. The Manifestation series reflects the ongoing development of that method of working.
Mixed Media on Wood, 23 x 23 cms
Eulogy was created in the immediately after the loss of Dyllan in one session, over a background I had previously made. On reflection, I could see three central figures – drawn in a dark line that looked like a man, a woman, and a child. I took those to be my husband, Paul, my son Jasper (who was five at the time) and myself. A few weeks later a friend pointed out the image of a baby’s smiling face in the upper left of the painting (see Eulogy, detail).
Acrylic on wood, 21.5 x 30cms
This painting was very mysterious to me. I put the deep carmine onto the right central figure very intuitively and afterwards realised that by doing that it revealed a baby form. I then grabbed some white paint on my finger instinctively and made a mark to the right that turned out to be a dove in flight.
Through a Glass Darkly, 2007, Acrylic on Wood, 30.5 x 30.5 cms
Acrylic on wood, 15 x 11 cms
Acrylic on wood, 30 x 21.5 cms
Acrylic on wood, 21.5 x 30 cms
I am intrigued by the profile of a man at the top just right of centre.
Acrylic on wood, 10 x 10 cms
Acrylic on wood, 15 x 11 cms
Me, Myself, I, 2007, Acrylic on Wood, 31 x 31 cms
This painting emerged towards the end of this process. I instinctively mixed brown and black and felt directed to made this central figure, leaving the spaces. It appeared to me that there were three forms of different elements and that their combination was a positive indication.
Colour, glorious colour is the most striking property of Melissa Alley’s paintings. She starts relatively modestly in the early work with a gentle glissando for brushstrokes; in the most recent work the various strands of symphonic colour rise to a dizzying crescendo. But let it not be thought that is a question of hit or miss. She does not plan her composition in advance, but as soon as the first notes are struck, so to speak, she has her pitch and the painting evolves almost organically under her brush.
Inside Out, 1997, is one of the most exciting of this early group. The figure is there for all to see, exposed to the viewer, but round it and through it lick the elemental flames which both destroy and renew. There is a sense of figure and ground, the ground perhaps a tawny landscape with clumps of green trees over which she has imposed the discipline of a linear figure. Yet there is a sense of something bubbling up inside – a cauldron of human emotions that no lid can keep sealed. The contrasting colours of the spectrum help to achieve an overall harmony – green shading into red, which in turn becomes a glowing orange. She uses the same colours, although in almost exactly the opposite way, to effect a similar harmony in Frisson, 1997,which has a sense of energy and movement pulsating through it. I am reminded with these figures of Rodin, who liked to have dancers wandering through his studio, so that he could catch a quick turn of the body and capture the fleeting moment on paper. Frisson is especially interesting because the artist made the work with her eyes shut, as an intuitive rather than a preconceived composition. In many of the drawings there are two figures, which immediately set up a dialogue, sometimes tense and strained, sometimes warm and affectionate. In this particular case the viewer has to ask him/herself: Are they turning away from each other or have they just been reunited? It should be remarked that Alley’s figures are nearly all women, perhaps because to be true to herself she can only be sure of female emotions and behaviour.
A solemn ritual is being enacted in Entities in Procession, 1998-00. The archetypal figures move slowly across the picture plane. It might be seen as part of a great Last Judgement, with the figures descending into limbo or, in a more pagan light, as a group processing towards an unseen sacrificial altar. The central figure is the focal point of the group, slightly set apart from the others, perhaps an act of worship. Certainly she may be connected with Gaea, Mother Earth, literally the most solid of the figures apart from the armless, headless statue to her right reminiscent of the Venus de Milo. The other figures are mysteriously transparent and the landscape may be seen through and beyond them, offering an interplay between positive and negative space.
Alley describes her work as being “on the cusp between abstraction and figuration”, and nowhere is this truer than in the most recent paintings in mixed media on wood which possess, in common with early pioneering Kandinsky, the quality of metamorphosis from figuration into abstraction and back again. If there is a metaphor to be discovered in this paeon of praise to colour it is that the death of painting is greatly exaggerated.
Mixed media on wood, 86 x 71 cms
Acrylic on paper, 50 x 33 cms
Acrylic on wood, 76 x 121 cms
Mixed media on paper, 50 x 33 cms
Acrylic on paper, 50 x 33 cms
Acrylic on wood, 76 x 121 cms
Mixed media on wood, 60 x 45 cms
Acrylic on wood, 30 x 30 cms
Mixed media on paper, 71 x 66 cms
Oil and sand on wood, 123 x 75.5 cms
Acrylic on paper, 50 x 33 cms
I was very fortunate to have Cecil come to my college once a week to teach. I studied with him from 1985-1989 and the drawings in this section were made in those classes. His method chimed in with something that I was trying to achieve – a letting go to obtain something more sensitive than the conscious mind alone could achieve. His technique with its multiple “instruments” (Chinese brushes, quills, reed pens, red chalks, charcoal and pencils), combined with the use of left and right hand, mouth, foot, movement, music and a usual maximum of one minute poses, meant I would get confused and surrender my previous means of control. As Francis Bacon said in his interviews with David Sylvester
"They come over without the brain interfering with the inevitability of the image. It seems to come straight out of what we choose to call the unconscious with the foam of the unconscious locked around it – which is its freshness”
.
I found the concurrent use of both hands very useful as it trained both sides of the brain – the left and right - to co-operate, creating a harmonious union of the analytical and intuitive. I enjoyed this alchemy of creating and communicating something in unexpected ways.
“I think that the mystery of fact is conveyed by an image being made out of non-rational marks.”F.B .
Through making these drawings, I got in touch with a desire to communicate the “other” whatever that may be; a sense of the timeless, the divine, the soul, the essence. Not from a religious perspective, but from a connection to the archaic, through memory, ancestry, the collective unconscious……. The Colour and Curve series was born from this and it was, I feel, more effectively communicated in the Loss paintings, leading into Manifestations, my current work.
N. B. It may seem strange to quote Francis Bacon in the context of Cecil Collins as they were spiritually and ideologically diametrically opposed. However, I studied them simultaneously, and found them both to have a similar concern with finding methods of accessing the subconscious.
These pieces, comprising 4 x 4 x 3/4 inch wooden tablets placed in grid formation, are concerned with exploring and manipulating the spacial and rhythmical qualities of colour and light within a rigorous structure. Music has always inspired me and these pieces are my expression of its fluidity and its underlying structures and constraints.
The Colour Fugues are site-specific installations. All five facets of the tablets are painted with different hues of colours that interact to create a dynamic interplay. Colour Fugue I (installed in a hallway), consisted of over 300 tablets and the viewer experienced an oscillation of colours alluding to a kinetic movement depending on whether you were walking from right to left, left to right or up or down the stairs. “Melissa Alley enlivens the basement with the syncopated beat of brightly coloured squares.“ Sarah Kent on DIY: 19 Variations on the Theme of Wallpaper (co-curated by Alley), Time Out, 2000.
In Colour Fugue II three rows of tablets were mounted up high to create a frieze that compelled the viewer to look upward to the ornate architrave of the Regency property. I wanted to highlight over-looked elements of buildings and to combine this with the experience one can have when entering a religious building and on sensing something above, look up to discover beautiful frescoes or ornate gold carvings.
I had a solo exhibition at Cinnamon Soho in 2015. This was a site-specific installation at the restaurant.
This is an installation on our staircase.
I made this piece for an exhibition that my husband, the artist, Paul Tecklenberg and I curated in our house in 2000. Please note the references in the accompanying text.
Each individual piece represents a member of my family, including my paternal grandparents who I never met. My aim was to connect to each individual and make a picture that represented them. I was fascinated by the information that came out. The formation was based on a football team, hence the title, United. Here it is installed at Cinnamon Soho for an exhibition in 2015.
This piece was made as a commission and is installed in the owner’s house.
Colour Etching
Colour Etching
Colour Etching
Colour Etching
Etching with Chine-collé
Etching with Chine-collé
