Feminist Spaces Summer 2022

Male Gaze Melody “Melody A Dit” Thomasson I am a French artist based in Berlin that goes by “Melody A Dit.” I play with time, symbols, and influences through the practice of paper and digital collage.

Far from a hazardous and unexpected process, my works are the fruit of my reflections and personal interrogations inspired by the passing of time and the pages of magazines I flip through. Oscillating between real and imaginary, retro and contemporary influences, my collages question reality in abstraction: they sublimate the banal into the marvelous. It all started after a heavy jaw operation. In full convalescence and unable to communicate with others, I returned to the practice, which very quickly became therapeutic. It was a new language and another way of expressing myself. The “Melody A Dit” project (translated to “melody said” in English) was born.

Over time, my collages began to engage and reflect on the world around me. Feminism, ecology, parity, love, education, and the relationship to oneself and to others are my favorite leitmotifs. This is why some artworks denounce, others divert, but all communicate the notions of imagination and dreams.

With the collage Male Gaze, which features a naked woman paradoxically covered with the gaze of others, I depict the emotion felt when she dares to unveil herself in the public space. I remember with compassion the woman I was before I became actively involved in feminism: the one who wore long sleeves in the middle of summer to get home safely. With this 82