VAUGHAN MELZER Collagist & Painter

VM’s birth was part of a traumatic story of World War Two which remains threaded throughout her life. From around 2000, she began to explore her background using Playbricks with images stuck on them. The brick as metaphor for building and growth; the playbrick, for connoting childhood. The images on the bricks varied from furthering the notion of childhood fantasies to making visual references to the spread of ethnicities, culture and historic times across VM’s life. 

Three projects came out of this exploration: 

‘The Beginning’, which relates to VM’s deep longing for a father

‘Childhood’, which conveys a picture of a child’s use of fantasy to explain and comfort

‘The Family’, which is VM’s adult self, exploring a fascinating spread of people to whom she is linked 

Her bricks (2016-18) have been a means of integrating the complex mix of nationalities, cultures, politics and history that make up her family.