The Art of Resistance: Defending Academic Freedom since 1933 | Page 158

Jenny Mellings?British Armorial Dwelling 2000 Signed (on rear) Unframed Oil on Coated Aluminium 58.5 x 38 cm Guide Price £350 “ Jenny completed her foundation course at Bournemouth College of Art and Design, moving on to a BA at Exeter College of Art and Design, followed by an MA at the University of Plymouth. Her work has been showcased at galleries and universities up and down the country. A current theme of her work is how humans engage with the virtual world of the internet. Many of the accounts I have heard of escape from persecution, war and oppression, are those of artists and other creative people, forced to flee regimes from across the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. They include the late ceramicist, Lucy Rie, whose father was a doctor and associate of Sigmund Freud, and a close family friend, one of Lucy’s assistants, both forced to flee Nazi Berlin. More recently, I’ve been spiritually uplifted by the music of a contemporary jazz musician and composer whose family fled Lebanon, and met a young Syrian filmmaker whose quest for freedom of expression had brought him to the UK. So many of those who have sou ght refuge in the ‘free’ world, where the boundaries are ever changing, have radically and positively illuminated our lives with their company, creativity and intense appreciation of life and liberation. This modest contribution to the cause was derived from a short animation I made in 2003, in which a construction morphed into several architectural styles and states. Its origins are the wrecked buildings featured in news reports of political strife and war. The edifice became a metaphor for the ongoing mutability of life, struggles of opposing forces and those caught up within them, as well as inner restraints and conflicts. It probably goes without saying that the birds represent freedom. jenny mellings 156 The Art of Resistance? Defending Academic Freedom ” Lot 53