MELISSA BORMAN | My Father Was a Flower Garden, 2023

“My Father Was a Flower Garden” is an element from an experiential, multi-media installation and corresponding artist book titled [Re]collections & Earthly Artifacts. Using images, objects, text, and video the work addresses the interconnected relationship embedded in using landscape elements as metaphors to depict human stories and how these depictions shape our ideas of our surroundings. Many elements of the installation are inspired by my upbringing in a peripatetic military family and my drive to share stories my parents were denied opportunities to tell. My father was a closeted gay man in the military and my mother struggled with mental and physical illness for much of her life. I grew accustomed to the need to acclimate myself to new places through repeated cross-country relocations along with ever-changing family dynamics. In addition to introducing new works, [Re]collections & Earthly Artifacts revisits previously overlooked objects, images, and ideas from abandoned and unfinished projects spanning two decades of my practice. Drawing inspiration from film, poetry, literature, and the natural world, the installation consists of deeply personal and vulnerable expressions of memory, grief, loss, and resilience.

BIO

Melissa Borman is a Minneapolis-based photographer, installation artist, and curator. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Regional Cultural Center, Co. Donegal, Ireland, Galería Valid Foto, Barcelona, Spain, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA, Filter Space, Chicago, IL, and Griffin Museum, Boston, MA. Melissa is a recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board, Artist Initiative and Creative Support Grants, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Grant, and Rochester Art Center’s Jerome Emerging Artist Award. Melissa has published three artist books. Two of them, “Birds” and “[Re]collections & Earthly Artifacts,” are in the Rosemary Furtak Artist Book Collection at the Walker Art Center. Melissa has been an educator for over 20 years. For 15 years, she led summer programs at the Burren College of Art in Co. Clare, Ireland. Recently, she has served as a mentor in Minneapolis College of Art and Design's MFA Program. Melissa is currently a full-time faculty member in Art and Gender Studies and Exhibitions Director at Century College in White Bear Lake, MN