Made in China
Melanie Jackson’s new video installation Made in China will be screened at Matt’s Gallery for two weekends only. This work brings three short videos into one space: two are presented as projections back to back on a large suspended screen, and one plays on a monitor. The exhibition weaves together the tales of two Chinese women and their experiences of work and migration: One girl travels from the rural provinces of China to the city, uprooting from the family farm to take up work in a cosmetics factory, making false eyelashes. The other, a musician, takes a journey from China to London to study the traditional Chinese string instrument the ‘erhu’ under English tutorage.

Melanie Jackson uses a mixture of animation, staged film and straight documentary to set up a complex set of relationships between the personal impulses and external influences that lead to certain working and living conditions, and fantasies of escape. The films focus on the girls’ patterns and structures of work, depicting the discipline that this entails in each case. The work also reflects on their inevitable implication into patterns of economic and cultural consumption in the West.

This is Melanie Jackson’s fourth project with Matt’s Gallery.

The 9th in the series of Matt’s Gallery white booklets Made in China, with an essay by Mark Harris, has been published to accompany this exhibition and is free for visitors.

Made in China will also be screened at HanartTz Gallery, Hong Kong in June 2005.

Acknowledgments: Picture Research China: O Zhang; Camera for Performance: Lynda Hall; Lighting for performance: George Duck; Sound Post Production: Dave McGuire; Animation Consultant: Christina Vilics; Performer: Wei Ying Jun; Teacher: Colin Huehns, Lecturer Royal Academy of Music Students: Weiying Jun, Jacqueline Leung, Benjamin Trigg, Wang Yan.
This exhibition has been generously supported by Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.

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Biography
Melanie Jackson Born 1968, Hollywood, West Midlands. Lives and works in London. Studied 1990-92 Royal College of Art (MA) and 1987-90 Byam Shaw School of Art (BA Hons) 1997 THCFE Diploma in Digital Image Making /Fine Art Solo Exhibitions 2006 Far West, Spacex Gallery, Exeter (forthcoming) 2005 Made in China, Matt’s Gallery, London; Videotage, Hong Kong; BizArt, Shanghai, China 2004 Westerly Wind And A Clear Nights Sky, Eden Project (film commission) 2003 Some Things You Are Not Allowed To Send Around The World, Matt’s Gallery, London 1999 Soil and Seawater, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff; BACKSPACE, Matt’s Gallery, London 1997 The Brazen Oracle, Senate House, University of London (Bookworks commission) 1996 after The Conjurer, Project Arts Centre, Dublin 1994 …do you, or have you ever? Matt’s Gallery, London 1992 A Kind Of Hush, Space Studios, London Group Exhibitions 2006 Made in China, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (forthcoming) 2005 Fascinations, HanartTZ Gallery, Hong Kong 2004 Arts News, Three Colts Lane, London; Urban Networks, East Wing Collection, Courtauld Institute, London; Bootleg, Spitalfields Market, London 2000 Bibliomania, Online project curated by Simon Morris; Perspective 2000, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland 1999 About Time, Cardiff Art and Time, February 1998 Clean Slate, 3 person exhibition, Art Gallery Of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 1997 Cambridge Darkroom, Cambridge 1996 Frozen In Time, Galerie Gebauer u. Gunther, Berlin; Galerie Sabine Wachters, Brussels, Belgium 1995 Kerlin Gallery, Dublin; In and Out of Touch, Haus Ungarn, Berlin, Germany; Budapest Galleria, Budapest, Hungary EV+A, Limerick City Art Gallery, Limerick, Ireland 1993-94 Escale, Musee d’Art Moderne, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France 1993 that thin streak of red, Oxford Sculpture Trust, Oxford 1992 a watched pot... RCA Graduation Show, London 1989 3D’89, Watermans Arts Centre, London 1988 BWA Gallery, Zielona Gora, Poland Curated Exhibitions 1998 LlathYard, Cardiff, commission to participate in and curate an exhibition of poster and postcard works in sites across the city, 18 artists (including Susan Hiller, Keith Piper, Hannah Collins, Bethan Huws), funded by the Arts Council Of Wales Lottery Division, UWIC and Cardiff Bay Arts Trust Awards 2005 Artists Links British Council China 2003 AHRB Award 2002 London Arts, Individual Artists Award 2000 AHRB award 1998 Travel Award, Arts Council of Wales 1997-98 Senior Fellowship, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff 1993 London Arts Board, Individual Artists Award, March Residencies 2000 Lost Horizons ­ residency to convene symposium and produce a publication for The Camberwell Press. Speakers including: Jaki Irvine, Paul Gilroy, Guy Brett, Camberwell College of Arts, London with publication and exhibition of material Conferences 2000 Lost Horizons, Camberwell College of Arts, London 1999 The Wealth Of The World..., National Museum of Wales Teaching Currently Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, BAFA Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (from 2004). Previously: Lecturer in Time Based Art (MA), Royal College of Art 2000-2004, Lecturer in Fine Art, UWIC Cardiff, (Senior Fellow 1997-1998)1997-2000, Associate Lecturer Camberwell College of Arts 1998 ­ 2000, Lecturer in Fine Art NCAD, Dublin, Ireland 1996-1998. Visiting artist: Exeter, Birmingham, Kingston Colleges of Art, Chinese University, Hong Kong. External Examiner IALDT: Dublin 2001-2004