Graduate Exhibition

Jo Mellor-Stuart’s artistic practice is focused on the creation of hand-made and digitally rusted fabrics that emulate the found rust patterns on the abandoned mining structures in Broken Hill. Her work examines how adopting a feminist gaze alongside the pre-existing dominant male gaze in the mining landscape has a holistic and productive benefit in a range of dimensions. By achieving symbiosis between seemingly disparate and contrasting demographics, the natural and industrial landscapes are reinvigorated to garner renewed interest in man-made elements formerly considered defunct. Jo is best known for her unstretched abstractions that are draped from the ceiling, pinned to the wall, and lie on the floor to express the feminist gaze within the patriarchal mining town.