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Textile students Mel Rye and Hannah Turner-Voakes
quickly reached the conclusion that two heads are better than one.
Friends since the first year of their course at
the Norwich School of Art and Design, it soon became clear their
work was closely linked.
"We realised that our work was following similar
themes of identity, the body, dressing-up, masquerade and that we
were both using the medium of photography," said Mel.
In the year that the students have been working
together, their work has evolved to include ideas of sharing and
duplication of identity and the notions of beauty and difference
in appearance.
Fashion victims
"It's to do with the way people present their
individuality, yet still feel a need to confirm to the pressure
that is put on society to appear in a particular way," said
Mel.
"We're not saying that fashion is right or
wrong in telling people what to do or how to look," added Hannah.
"It's about making people think why they wear
what they do and making people question if fashion is being used
as a tool suppress a person's individuality."
School portraits |
During National Science Week (12-21 March), visitors
to The Forum can see the results of a photographic project that
examined the idea of unification.
"The school portrait project was designed
to give everyone a set appearance, to make
everyone the same, irrelevant of age or gender," said Mel.
"We took the cheesy school photo idea as this
is often the first time we're seen represented in a uniformed way.
"It's only when we exhibited all the photos
together you can see the small differences in people's faces and
identities, despite being represented as a unified group.
"It's to show this idea of identity in the
extreme. To ask what happens when you conform to a uniformed look
and question what happens to your own identity as a result,"
added Hannah.
Mel and Hannah's work
has caught the public imagination, especially when walking around
Norwich as the Mena Twins.
"Due to the interactive nature of our work,
we encourage public reaction and we get it in abundance," enthused
Hannah.
Mel Rye and Hannah Turner-Voakes as the Mena
Twins. |
"People's responses vary from shock and disbelief,
interest, disgust, amusement and people often presume that we're
advertising something - which we are, our work and its concepts!
"We're pleased to say that most people's reactions
are very positive and people are generally interested in what we
are doing and why."
Fellow students at the Norwich
School of Art and Design have been supportive of Mel and Hannah's
work.
"The art school course has given
us a good conceptual grounding and has put emphasis
on helping us develop our work through experimentation," said
Mel.
"The tutors, technicians and other students
have all been extremely supportive and anticipate our future performances
with interest."
Mel and Hannah are performing as the Mena Twins
during the Norwich School of Art and
Design end of year show on Thursday 17 - Wednesday 23 June.
If you would like to contact The Mena Twins about
their work or donate any size 20 or stretchy clothes, please e-mail
the menatwins@yahoo.com
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