Artist Statement:

In Study in Flesh and Refuse, I wanted to create a moment of reversal where the idealized male body, often placed on a pedestal, is instead positioned at the brink of obsolescence. Here, he stands naked before the bags wrapped suits, wrapped bodies, wrapped status and we must ask: is he above them, or simply next in line for the garbage heap? The plastic bags serve as both shroud and packaging. The businessmen outside the glass are unbothered; they’ve already accepted that value lies in polish, not in personhood. This is about how we treat strength, perfection, and men themselves as inventory, to be cycled through and tossed aside.

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Hashtags:

#RhondaMelo, #Melora, #Melora<3, #MeloraArtist, #10000HourProject, #ContemporaryArt, #MannequinStudy, #MaleFormInCrisis, #CommodificationOfBodies, #PlasticWrappedTruth, #StorefrontViolence, #GallerySubmission, #NarrativeArt, #ConceptualInstallation, #PostConsumerCritique, #VisualTension, #SculpturalPhotography, #MasculineCollapse

Artist Statement:

In this piece, I wanted to explore the paradox of spectacle and labor the way systems of consumption are both hidden and glorified. The suited man represents corporate detachment, standing in awe of a window display that mimics struggle without acknowledging it. The sculptural figure, forever laboring, becomes an object of display, divorced from personhood. Meanwhile, the mannequins remind us that both observer and observed are products of the same system some active, some discarded. Is this a celebration or a warning? That discomfort is the point.

Hashtags:

#RhondaMelo, #Melora, #Melora<3, #MeloraArtist, #SurrealArt, #ConsumerCritique, #LateCapitalism, #ContemporaryArt, #WindowDisplayArt, #NarrativePhotography, #ArtAndLabor, #DisposableCulture, #PlasticWrappedTruth, #SpectacleAndSilence, #CorporateAlienation, #GallerySubmission, #FineArtConceptual, #ArtThatSpeaks, #VisualSociology, #TheGlassBoxEconomy