[Finding Melody: Part 1] comprises a new body of sculptural work from Charlie Osborne + a new publication with Ayvan.
Charlie Osborne takes the mechanics of folk to construct an apparatus of invitational play. Diablo’s, harmonica pendants, juggling balls, songs and melodies tumble into a circus of a remixed ready-made. A rotational spiral system suggests mechanisms adjacent to scarecrow tactics and a patchwork of Youtube links and screenshots, proposes a tempting offer to connect the dots. At the centre of a skeleton plywood stage held up by gazebo parts, sits an edited massage chair where a steel chest plate allows a partner to push this apparatus into a circular motion; a theatrical gesture which further suggests, central characters Melody and Marty once performed here.
Fabricated like a script, synthesizing the lectern of a Cyfarywd and scored by thoughts of birdsong, tongue-tweeting toy-noisemakers and [jbl-flip6] speakers slung across the bare chest of the strongman soundtracking his summer.
Whether it’s a play, or a theater piece or a circus Charlie wants to playfully edit out any live action and only give us the remnants. This need to remove and yet at the same time story-tell the work becomes a performance in itself; it’s a trickster language that’s forever changing its plot allowing for invitational fantasy. Are Melody and Marty falling in love?
[ enter ] your words to me and I’ll turn it into : [ rhymes ] plays with a rule of pareidolia logic. Melody and Marty experience these altered objects like a playlist puzzle of a reinvented science, recontextualising objects through an origin of folk, spinning it through a vacuum of a synthetic readymade.
When consuming these fractured versions of vampires, puppets, sensitive tricksters and a mythicised Dad found inside the book, a story unlocks. Like the man spotted in LA wearing a full Superman pyjama suit, love cats are conducted forming into stripes and polka dots, intercepted in creaks by dream catchers hanging from car windows dancing in the wind. Turning to the next page you’re led to finding the melody in swinging pendulums and faces that grin across the fire. Framed by the utensils that support Charlie Osborne’s devotional research practice a clever construction of the hyper-real comes into play. Making a mirage of objects, words and images becoming a circus of information.
Interlude accompanies Charlie’s music release with odyxxey. A piece of text which takes her mythicised absent Dad and reinvents him into a spirit, dissecting his anatomy and Youtube ingestion. The spirit works like an antidote with his own spiritual vocabulary.
Charlie Osborne [Finding Melody: Part 1] – 26th October 2024 piccalilli
Ayvan and odyxxey
[Finding Melody : Part 1] publication, is a speculative work that challenges conventional literary forms. Structured as a script, the book draws upon Charlie’s writing and lyrics, creating a multifaceted narrative that uses fracturing to create a piece of theatre for its two central characters, Melody and Marty.
A limited edition run of 50 copies of [Finding Melody: Part 1] are available for collection. The edition
includes a lucky dip artwork on the bookmark: 25 editions of Melody version and 25 editions of Marty version which includes
[Finding Melody: Part 2], a stream link to early access of Charlie’s music release with odyxxey. Any remaining editions will be available on odyxxey’s website.
[Finding Melody: Part 1] – ayvan.co/product/finding-melody
[Finding Melody: Part 1+2] – odyxxey.com/store/charlie-osborne-finding-melody-part-1-2
About the artist
Charlie Osborne, born in Cardiff, is a London-based artist who works across video, performance, sculpture and sound.
She exhibited as part of Mattflix, Matt’s Gallery, London (2021) and her films have been screened at the London Short Film Festival, the British Film Institute and The White Hotel. Salford. She is currently on the Conditions Studio Programme, London.
WATCH: Charlie Osborne – Bury-Man-Lane on FACT
