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Melodie Ng - the colours, the smells, the feel of the past
"...the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity". Salman Rushdie
GOOD Edition features 3 images by Melodie Ng from her series "What Remains" which was recently shown as a 2-person show "MeiKong/HongKong" during CONTACT, the Toronto Photography Festival. The exhibition is a painfully beautiful narration of memories and family and the on-going search for one's history and identity.
In "What Remains," Melodie Ng produced ambrotypes of photographs from her grandparents'photo albums, seeking to understand her connections to her forebears. Her grandfather was an avid photographer. He passed down images that are not just standard family record, but aesthetically gratifying.
But what interests Melodie most are the mystery and stories behind these photographs. "How do I relate to my mother's memories? How do I relate to the memories of my grandparents' lives, their memories? What is the texture of memory - what are the colours, the smells, the feel of the past." Sifting through the albums and small stacks of photographs, she discovered artifacts from which she could construct whole lives. She began to see part of their world, who they were, and who they are.
Melodie grew up in Toronto, Canada and graduated with a BFA from Ryerson University's Photography program in 2006. Throughout her work, she explores the interplay between text and images, memory and family history, and always refining her particular approach to documentary photography.
