Melinda Fourn

In the palm of the hand

On the occasion of the 15th edition of the Dakar Biennale, Melinda Fourn's first solo exhibition at Selebe Yoon, In the palm of the hand, features a series of multimedia sculptures and photographs. 

By exploring the durability of traditional skills and the proliferation of technological gadgets with programmed obsolescence, Melinda Fourn considers jewellery as a poetic synthesis. Most often worn next to the skin, an adornment for the body, a social marker, an intimate object or a symbol of a strong bond - for the artist, the ring represents a complex aesthetic and social condensation. "No matter how small the accessory, it often carries a deep and intimate meaning, reflecting bonds forged, life experiences or heritage handed down. More than once, I've been anxious about misplacing one, just like the first one my mother gave me at the age of 10," says Melinda Fourn about her own experience of jewellery.

Spread across the gallery, three iron and steel sculptures with the appearance of monumental rings invite the viewer to confront the disturbing enlargements of objects that are usually so small. Inside the frames are screens showing sequences of the jewellery-making processes in the craftsmen's workshops, documented by Fourn. Each sculpture becomes a showcase, revealing the birth of these objects by the hands that forge and manipulate the molten metal right up to the finished object. From the blow of the hammer to the polish, every movement is captured and sublimated, recalling the fragility and precision of traditional skills. Whether the gesture is artisanal or artistic, beyond these demarcation lines, the change of scale allows the sculptor to establish these objects definitively as works of art, in an act of revolt against the possible disappearance of this intangible heritage.  

For several months, the artist spent time with jewellers in the Cour des Orfèvres near the Sandaga market in Dakar, whose historic building was recently destroyed. A historic site dedicated to arts and crafts, this place, like these trades, is now threatened with extinction due to the massive importation of manufactured goods. Beyond the production of ornamental objects, these workshops represent spaces of knowledge that are part of a social and community fabric that Fourn strives to understand, observe and document in his photographs.

These images, with their very close framing, capture the gestures and tools as closely as possible, rendering them almost abstract. The hand and the flesh's physical relationship with these instruments play a central role in his images: the skin of the makers is revealed in a veneer of vulnerability. In a gesture of association between text and image, certain works are accompanied by poems, an integral part of the work, revealing the voice of the material, the intimate encounter with this gesture, which at times resembles a metaphor that retains its enigma.   

In the palm of the hand explores the competition between traditional craftsmanship and evolving technologies, questioning the social changes that ensue.  Captivated by the craft-making techniques specific to West Africa, it is also the ways in which this knowledge is passed on from master to apprentice, and the intangible memory of this threatened heritage, that the artist questions. Couldn't the hope of young people exist within these workshops? the artist wonders. At a time when the latest technological gadgets are proliferating, appropriating jewellery to ensure consumers are ultra-connected digitally, these works question our increasingly close relationship with technology: the case becomes a screen, a game of dualities.