Sheersburg Girl 5

“In July 1995 I taught a ten day residential performance art course in Sheersburg Germany. All the students happened to be female so at the end of the workshop as part of the final presentation we took analogue photographs, which were printed in large format  of each girl and created banners from them. I decided that they would parade with them as if they were on a demonstration. 

Since then I kept them with me wherever I have gone hoping to use them as part of a new work. Over the years I have drawn on them and added different textures. It is only now I think they are transformed enough to be something else. Recently I decided to try to track down each girl as I had a thought that I would like to exhibit next to each picture, a photo of the 25 years older woman. But after some research I discovered all records of students are destroyed after 10 years in German institutions.” Melanie Thompson