Melissa Ichiuji

"My aim is to capture, through metaphor, the between moments; transitions from innocence to awareness and psychological or emotional brinks from which there is no return"– Melissa Ichiuji. Melissa's sculptures are strangely grotesque yet immensely beautiful at the same time. She takes care in achieving this contradiction stating, "My figures often appear to be at once infantile and aging both disconnected and active." The doll like qualities bring to mind childhood, while the sexual undertones comment on womanhood, sexual awakening, power, repressed anger and violence and mortality. Her dolls symbolize internal struggles we as humans experience throughout our lives. She chooses to use materials that draw on connections to human skin and organs. Pantyhose, dried fruit, hair, latex, leather, and bones among other things. The visibility of her stitches and the strangely distorted figures resemble the little girl in Jump! who is also going through a life transition from innocence to awakening. The parallels between the two and visual aesthetic also brings to mind the topic of voodoo dolls and the beliefs behind them.