Karma climbed into the California Sierra Mountains
to find a babbling brook and mixed it together with
stretch strong neon.
Spending the day by the ocean,
the endless rhythm of the waves,
washing through your being,
cleansing and balancing your energy.
Dancing with the water are the pure tones,
a partially draped woman,
raising her light peplos to uncover
her hips and buttocks,
and looking back and down over her shoulder,
perhaps to evaluate them.
Black goes with everything, even pollination.
Recombinations of a novel colour
mutant and multiple regular colour,
genetic backgrounds.
I really just needed something simple yet inspiring,
unique and unwilted.
I was happy to find it in Rainbows and Waterfalls.
Slow moving traffic is much more tolerable
when Paradise is playing.
The sounds of a harp reverberate gently
to the accompaniment of soft whistling
are like halotherapy,
seeming to echo off distance hills.
The whistling has a mystical quality to it
that seems to re-awaken a distant memory
of an inward joyousness
and makes me smile softly to myself
as I go into meditation.
– Jessica Gispert, 2015

Jessica Gispert (*1984, Miami) is presenting new and recent works at MÈLANGE. Trampled by relaxation-scapes, the Florida native feels coddled by, yet in the position to resign to spa-culture. This body of work is inspired by the desire to obtain an artificial paradise. Garden-sized sculptures with faux-marbled surfaces, a salt-mineral pool meditation space, Black Velvet Petunias sustained by LED grow lights: all an attempt to control the surrounding environment, yet make the exhibition ever changing. As the flowers are in full blossom, time can only do them harm. The Black Petunia is a flower that was only created (pollinated) for the sake of reaching the level of black that no flower had ever reached before. Here they serve as forced pleasure devices, contained in their artificial environment, and also as an echo to the history of the flower industry. With its flora and artifice, MÈLANGE becomes a space for cultivation and joy, but still serves a metaphor for the deformation of what was once natural. Black and neon fabric-objects, hanging on the wall and attached to a protruding cactus, have undergone a series of procedures. The stretch material they are made of, is meant to compensate any size and shape of the body. They adapt to every possible form, being nearly ever expandable. Hardened and twisted, they have lost their function to give its wearer a cozy embrace. The Heartspace engages MÈLANGE as a place for wandering and contemplation, while reminding us of the piercing potential of seduction and allure.