BEYOND THE SCREEN Melora Hardin’s Journey into Contemporary Feminist Art, Creating Immersive Worlds Through Collage, Wallpaper and Tapestry
You probably know Melora Hardin as the young character ‘Baby’ in the TV series Dirty Dancing, or more recognizable for her astounding performance as candle-crazed Jane in the hit series ‘The Office’. She has also appeared in popular shows such as Transparent, Grey’s Anatomy, as well as movies such as 17 Again and Tangles. The talent of the actress behind the infamous dinner party scene is not limited to her dance moves and comedic timing, but in recent years, has found a new home as a multi-disciplinary artist in the field of collage work.
Melora, from a young age living in Houston, Texas, experimented with different collage compositions forming them into storyboards to process her creative ideas. Her talent has been recognized globally through her expansive career in film and television.
While filming The Bold Type in Montreal, Melora would spend her free time cutting up and composing different elements together to express herself through the alternative composing different elements together to express herself through the alternative creative outlet of collage work. Friends of hers came across this art and encouraged her to take these elements to the next level by transforming them into large-scale formats. And there the idea for wallpaper and murals was born.
In a moment of the universe aligning – Melora walked into Maison Pepin, a beautifully furnished boutique in the heart of Old Montreal. The owner, Lysanne Pepin informed her of the small but family-owned firm called WYNIL just above the shop, that specialised in wall décor and extra-large scale printing. Through a collaborate effort, her art transformed into extensive printed murals. What was once small art configurations, with sizes ranging from basic canvas sizes to no larger than a postal card, became impressive large, immersive works of art. The elements are crafted and proportioned into beautiful, dreamlike sceneries that, at full-scale, allow people to submerge themselves into these uniquely crafter settings composed of different materials and elements.
chair from Perez Furniture
The combination of WYNIL and Melora has granted her the opportunity for her wallpaper to adorn the walls of coffee shops and the office buildings around Montreal.
The whimsical world of Melora Hardin creates contemporary feminist tapestries from paper, textures, and any materials she can get her hands on. Deconstructing and re-randomizing into a transparent discord of female empowerment through carefully curated materials. With the combination of nature scenes, gold splashes and intrinsic shapes through bold and colorfully crafted composites – the world through the mind of Melora has taken shape into interiors that are art pieces in themselves.
The emplacement of the women inside this world that she has created tells us a story. Each collage has a meaning and a feeling, similarly to that of the work she does on-screen, but in a more personal and introspective way. We are excited to see her work create a life of its own through users’ experiences of the spaces and places that hold her work of art. Her ultimate dream was for these users to be able to, through escapism, experience first-hand this magical mystical world of Melora, that is not on screen, but through a three-dimensional immersive experience.