David Davies Mellor – artist

I make artworks because I’m trying to think about how we should live and what the future might be. I’m particularly interested in the technical objects and techniques that make us who we are. We tend to call these technologies.

But they’re more than that. They combine how the world is imagined with how we’re able to act within it. They’re cosmologies – ways of seeing the universe. Other ways of seeing are possible. Things could be otherwise.

Through my work I want to make aesthetic things that enliven the senses and the spirit. Dominant culture is anaesthetic. It often dulls and obscures. It promotes simple thinking and easy solutions. Most importantly, we need to rescue morality from ethics.

My practice combines various ways of making and situating the stuff of aesthetic thinking. Materials are usually everyday, often recycled, and works are sometimes temporary and performative. I take a lens-based approach to documenting and recording many of my pieces, creating additional works in the process. While developing an argument about the technical and the moral, I also want to address questions about the materials and techniques of art practice, as these overlap. My practice is strongly influenced by postcolonial, queer, and eco-activist theories.

I’m currently studying for an artistic research PhD provisionally titled ‘Cosmologies of technology and morality’ at Coventry University. I live in Cardiff, Wales UK.