Working across digital and traditional mediums, South East London based Melissa Kitty Jarram embraces the hardships of the female experience and the violence inherent in life through her illustrations, paintings and moving image works. Her imaginary is suffused with mythology – an extensive source of inspiration that, to this day, still unearths the depths of human nature. To her, nothing compares to the level of expression that comes with the texture of painting, with improvisation, and with the sense of danger that’s tied to the possibility of making mistakes. However, it’s making a painting move that brings it closer to reality for Melissa: as she speaks about her journey with animation, she’s positive that the hard work behind it ultimately pays off. The process might be long and painful, but it’s always worth it.

What first struck me when I encountered your work was the interplay between human and non-human forms of life, as well as the openness and fluidity with which different states of matter permeate your images. But there are also elements of violence in them. Where does your interest in that come from?
So much of the work I make is an expression of the female experience and life. Unfortunately violence is a part of life (whether we like it or not) and I feel like this is something we should embrace, rather than try to hide from or ignore. Maybe it’s also because there have always been things I’ve had to fight against or fight for. Life so far has felt like one long battle, with small periods of recuperation, enough to keep me relatively sane.

Mythology and narrative play an important role in your work. How do they relate to life in today’s world?
Get woke via ancient wisdom! Haha but no, really I just think they’re really telling of human nature since most mythologies tend to be morality plays. It’s useful in determining what is nature or nurture, and the more you learn about mythology and religion, the more you see similarities in them all. It’s like we’ve been playing Chinese whispers with our ancestors, but it’s even more interesting now since we live in a culture and society where (for possibly the first time) there is no God. What are our myths? Who do we worship?
Despite a growing population and access to social media, we are becoming more and more divided, segregated and alienated. I have no doubt that this is related to my questions above.

At what point in the process of creating a work do you decide to use digital or traditional mediums, and to develop an idea into an illustration or a painting?
Whether or not I make an illustration or painting will always be determined by the brief if it’s for a commercial project. When making work for myself or for a passion project, then I usually turn to painting because there’s nothing that can replicate the expression that comes with texture and improvised marks. I also like the danger of something that could go wrong; you cannot simply command + Z a painting.

I am fascinated by the care it takes to create works of animation like yours. I think the laborious, time-consuming side of it and the dedication behind producing such work is particularly relevant today. To me it seems a practice that resists the pressure to ‘make the most of one’s time’ in a conventional way and to constantly measure or monetize productivity. Can you speak about what leads you to animation and your approach to it?
Animation is so almost like that ultimate fantasy of drawing something that becomes real, you know? Like when you were a kid and imagined drawing a can of coke or something when you wanted one, which actually materialised once you drew it. Endless cola.
Making a drawing or painting move feels one step closer to it becoming real and part of this world. It’s so much work, but when you see it move, the work pays off and the reward receptors in your brain ping like an end of day school bell.
There is something to be said about the time spent on something correlating positively to the quality of work. Money is the last thing I’m thinking about when making work.

How does 2020 look like to you?
THE END OF THE WORLD! As the newspapers would like you to think with all of this corona virus hype.
But for me - more animation.
I never realised how much of a masochist I was. It’s long and painful, but worth it though. I feel like there is so much more feeling that you can express in moving image, and film is a big part of my life. I’ve just animated some end credits for a feature length film called Tyger Tyger, which will be out later this year.