Melody Owen / Pearl Hyacinth

About

Melody Owen (USA) is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and curator from Portland, Oregon, who works with installation, video, photography, digital processes and hand cut collage. Owen explores technology, ecology and the embodied perception and communication of reality via different types of living forms. Most recently, Owen has been exploring these issues through 3D virtual worlds. Her digital representative, Pearl Hyacinth is a nomadic multiverse avatar who has been curating and creating work within existing social, creative virtual 3D worlds for the past ten years.

In this exhibition, Melody Owen’s Portrait Gallery : Fabulous Monsters series of hand cut collages are on display. These images made from picture books of colonial Australians and Australian seashells have accompanying augmented reality (AR) animations when viewed via a digital device — the collages come alive in the digital space. The Hyacinth Report, a ten-year retrospective of Pearl Hyacinth’s adventures building and adding animal voices to virtual worlds will also be shown.

Portrait Gallery : Fabulous Monsters collaged portraits & curation by Melody Owen. Augmented reality animations by: Anna Malina, Carla Knopp, Chris Coleman, ilan katin, Isa Kost, James Alec Hardy, Michelle Brown, Olof Pettersson, Sabato, SubNet, Théo Uchôa and Zak Margolis.

Exhibition runs 15-29 August 2026. Gallery open sat+sun 12-3pm.