Colour and Beat
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.
Fusion, Cinnamon Soho, London
I had a solo exhibition at Cinnamon Soho in 2015. This was a site-specific installation at the restaurant.
Glengall Road installation
This is an installation on our staircase.
DIY: 19 Variations on the Theme of Wallpaper
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.
Ensemble (Red & Violet), Cinnamon Soho, 2015
United
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.
Ensemble (Turquoise and Plum)
This piece was made as a commission and is installed in the owner’s house.
Ensemble (Turquoise and Plum)