Installation artist, designer and educator Joy Merron explores textiles as an architectural form, layering geometric shapes and repeating patterns, combining hand crafted and technological processes to create 3D structures. Joy often works collaboratively and is inspired by the geometry of nature and human imprints on the land. Provocative, delicate and inspiring, her work conveys thoughtful messages. She questions perceptions of everyday objects and materials and brings clarity to complex ideas.
Playing with light and colour, adding and subtracting through traditional methods and digital technology are at the core of Joy’s practice; her resulting installations are ethereal in character, often conveying serenity even when the underlying ideas are less happy. In a recent National Trust residency she explored the relationship between the previous inhabitants of a historic structure, encompassing the dynamics of life, living and leaving a permanent trace on the geography of the landscape and sea. Joy asked, “What legacy has been left, what will we be leaving for future generations and how will it impact on their lives? By collecting detritus from our homes and coastline, and amplifying them through repetition, signalling a visual awareness, I aim to illustrate the impact we have had, are having and will have. This is a moment for self reflection on how we see ourselves in this environment.”
Joy was Artist-in-Residence for the National Trust at Brean Down Fort in North Somerset, creating a major installation using discarded plastic bottle tops. She is proudest of her Clarks Village installation, created through my work with Somerset Art Works and her design heroes are Junichi Aria and Reiko Sudo of Nuno corporation in Japan. Approaches about individual commissions and project development are welcome.
Joy Merron was a member of the Design-Nation portfolio between 2014 and 2019.