Mel Deerson

Join us next week for our latest DRIVEWAY event 'Crestfallen in Woolies, like 10 minutes before it closes. The soundtrack…“Please accept my document”//fashion/' by Michael Kennedy, Celeste Declario, Diego Ramírez, Mel Deerson + guests 💫 EVENT DETAILS Saturday 2nd May 7pm onwards Event is free 🌟 ——————— Michael Kennedy is a multidisciplinary artist working with installation, painting, sound and text. Diego Ramirez is an artist with dreams, a writer with hopes and a facilitator with beliefs. He is represented by MARS Gallery. Mel Deerson (she/they) is an artist, writer, sound-maker, teacher and sometime-curator, working both solo and collaboratively. @celestedeclario @_m.11111ke111 @melodramaticpopularsong @meldeerson 📸Image courtesy of the artist. @cityofmelbourne #cityofmelbourne @whatsonmelb In 2026 KINGS is supported by the @creative_vic 'Creative Projects Fund'.

Edit: course now full! You can email us on [email protected] to go on the wait list. Introducing Mystic Poetry School’s first course, ‘Medieval mystic women’s poetry from India and Europe’ Blurring the lines between eroticism and devotion, mystic women poet-saints from India and Europe play with the nakedness of language in spontaneous and ecstatic composition.  From the unclothed iconoclasts of ancient India to visionary anchoresses of Europe, their poetic expressions surge with resonance. Mystic Poetry School is an in-person six-week program which introduces six medieval mystics and their visionary texts, which are filled with eroticism, sensory intensity, renunciation and intimate contact with the divine. The poet-saints we study are Lal Ded (Kashmir), Karaikkal Ammaiyar (Karaikkal), Andal (Tamil Nadu), Hildegard of Bingen (Germany), Mechtild of Magdeburg (Germany) and Julian of Norwich (England). Their poems and lives will be inspiration for writing in class, guided by prompts. Supplementary reading will be provided. There will be an opportunity to share your work in class, though there is no expectation to. We ask: what can the lives and words of medieval women mystics invoke in a secular society? How can we expand on these ideas of renunciation, devotion and eroticism? What are practical skills and tools needed to approach poetry? What visions can we cultivate in a crumbling world?  This program is for those seeking an introduction to the distinctive poetic expressions of medieval mystic women, alongside the opportunity for poetry writing in a low-pressure environment. Mystic Poetry School is open to all levels of experience, and there is no expected outcome. Manisha and Mel are experienced teachers whose writing and art practices are influenced by medieval mystic women’s texts. WHAT: 6 week class WHEN: Weds 6-8pm – 15 April, 22 April, 29 April, 6 May, 13 May, 20 May WHERE: Carlton neighbourhood house COST: $200 concession / $275 full Places limited: link in bio or dm for details

New video ‘The Dream of the Empty Garden’ for @mumamonash show Knowing Otherwise A dreamer gets trapped in the backyard of the soul Inspired by Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria and medieval dream poetry “They got no sanctified ground? They got no sanctified ground. Well! It could not be but it was so” - Carpentaria

The Dream of the Open Window, made as part of my PhD placement the Derek Jarman Lab at Birkbeck Screening at Birkbeck Cinema this Friday 18th at 6.30pm along with other films made by this year’s cohort A short film about stained glass, Chaucerian dream visions and lesbians @jarmanlab

impossible stained glass windows 🪟 In one of my favourite Chaucer dream-vision poems The book of the Duchess a dreamer wakes naked in bed to find his bedroom wall has become an impossibly complex stained glass window depicting all the stories of Troy ‘And, sooth to seyn, my chambre was Ful well depeynted, and with glas Were al the windowes wel y-glased Ful clere, and nat an hole y-crased’

My take on an illuminated manuscript, part of 100 Languages curated by @julietphraser and @ldm_9564 opening @trocaderoprojects tomorrow evening Julia and Lia write: “Art and play are some of our earliest forms of communication. In this exhibition, we intend to use as a curatorial framework Reggio Emilia’s notion of children having a hundred languages of creativity.”

Visit us for the final weekend of Mel Deerson’s ‘The Dream of the Mirror’ 2025. This improvised video work weaves DIY techniques with analogue effects to create a kaleidoscopic, mystical dreamscape. Filmed on an iPhone in Derek Jarman’s iconic garden in Dungeness, UK, the work conjures a space where poppies glow, stones flicker, and the sea pulses, through the portal of a hand mirror. Commissioned by UNSW Galleries in response to ‘Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days’, the work is accompanied by a special artist publication. Visit us: Sat–Sun: 12pm–5pm — Photograph: Jacquie Manning

The House of Sleep is where the Greek god of Sleep lives, sleeping on a dark bed, surrounded by as many dreams as there are grains of sand. It appears in my artist book ‘Dream of the mirror’ as a poem about Derek Jarman’s small house on the beach of Dungeness, where he made the dream-vision film ‘The Garden’. The book is full of COLOUR! And has poems and drawings from my visit to Dungeness. It’s available for free @unswgalleries to accompany my show alongside the Derek Jarman exhibition.

UNSW Galleries is delighted to announce a new video commission by Australian artist Mel Deerson presented alongside the exhibition ‘Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days.’    ‘The Dream of the Mirror’ 2025 conjures a kaleidoscopic dreamscape using footage filmed at Jarman’s garden in Dungeness. It continues Deerson’s interest in exploring the historical invisibility of queer desire, viewing it not as a ‘lack’ but as a generative, connecting force.    Accompanying the video work is a free artist publication that expands on the video’s visionary world through poems and drawings.   — Learn more about Deerson’s new commission and research into Jarman’s experimental films in the exhibition symposium, ‘A Blueprint for BLISS.’ Deerson will also introduce the screening of Jarman’s film ‘In The Shadow of the Sun’ (1981) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales   📚 Symposium |  11am–4pm Saturday 15 February 🎉  Opening | 4–6pm Saturday 15 February 📽️  Screening |  2-2.50pm Sunday 16 February   Register via the link in our bio @meldeerson @artgalleryofnsw   Image 1. Mel Deerson. Photo: Claudia Gori Image 2-3. Mel Deerson, ‘The Dream of the Mirror’ (still) 2025

Some comet-y ‘ooooooooooos’ and a screen shot from Owen Land’s ‘Wide angle Saxon’ from 1975, about a middle aged man who undergoes a religious conversion while watching an experimental film

Cheryl Dunye’s ‘Watermelon Woman’ (1996)- gorg clever film with a hot diy energy “Dunye stars as Cheryl, a video-store clerk and aspiring director whose interest in forgotten Black actresses leads her to investigate an obscure 1930s performer known as the Watermelon Woman, whose story proves to have surprising resonances with Cheryl’s own life as she navigates a new relationship with a white girlfriend (Guinevere Turner).“- Criterion collection

Paperbag spirit eating plastic bag soul surrounded by giant poppies in Derek Jarman’s garden