Born and raised on Treaty 6 territory (colonially named Saskatoon), Catherine Mellinger (she/they) is a mixed media collage artist currently living on land that is part of the Haldimand Tract, belonging to the Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe and Neutral Peoples (colonially named Waterloo) with her two children and co-parent. Her works have been exhibited across Turtle Island/North America and published Internationally, as well as commissioned by musicians, writers and private collectors.
Her collaborative works include an artistic exchange with contemporary writer Marianne Apostolides, which resulted in a suite of images that was published in Apostolides’ book Deep Salt Water (published by book*hug 2017). She is lead artist and collaborator of Post-Part, an inter-arts exhibition in collaboration with Nat Janin, Adam Harendorf and Pazit Cahlon inspired by the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, last exhibited as part of CAFKA21. She continues to be inspired by collaboration, in particular with other artist parents. She is honoured to have been been mentored by and collaborated with artists such as choreographer Jennifer Dallas, photographer Melanie Gordon, arts dramaturge Coman Poon, contemporary artist Aislinn Thomas and photographer Christopher Sherman.
From Catherine:
My work takes inspiration from both historical collage movements and contemporary feminist perspectives. With a practice that began rooted in the ideas and themes behind female artists of the Dada period, namely Hannah Hoch, I have continued to find inspiration in artists such as Joan Jonas, Francesca Woodman, Ana Mendieta and Cindy Sherman.
My most recent work is centred in my experience as a birthing parent living with mental illness/neurodiversity. In these works I explore identity and ownership of self. I am interested in the theme of identity as an interplay between the personal (self-identification) and the societal (identities imposed upon us). This interest extends to exploring ownership of self as a play space between a body being my own but also belonging in part to my children. I examine notions of “performative mothering” and “performative sanity” and have begun introducing the anthropological history of clowning and the archetype of “the fool” into my practice - taking a male dominated historical role of truth teller (often also disabled) and exploring how it might play out from a feminist perspective. Though I am a mid-career artist by the standards of overall practice, I am a new artists within the disability/Mad Arts community.
I am grateful to have received financial support from the following organizations:
