Textile students Mel Rye and Hannah Turner-Voakes quickly reached the conclusion that two heads are better than one. Friends since the first year of their course at the Norwich School of Art and Design, it soon became clear their work was closely linked. "We realised that our work was following similar themes of identity, the body, dressing-up, masquerade and that we were both using the medium of photography," said Mel. In the year that the students have been working together, their work has evolved to include ideas of sharing and duplication of identity and the notions of beauty and difference in appearance. Fashion victims "It's to do with the way people present their individuality, yet still feel a need to confirm to the pressure that is put on society to appear in a particular way," said Mel. "We're not saying that fashion is right or wrong in telling people what to do or how to look," added Hannah. "It's about making people think why they wear what they do and making people question if fashion is being used as a tool suppress a person's individuality." 
School portraits |
During National Science Week (12-21 March), visitors to The Forum can see the results of a photographic project that examined the idea of unification. "The school portrait project was designed to give everyone a set appearance, to make everyone the same, irrelevant of age or gender," said Mel. "We took the cheesy school photo idea as this is often the first time we're seen represented in a uniformed way. "It's only when we exhibited all the photos together you can see the small differences in people's faces and identities, despite being represented as a unified group. "It's to show this idea of identity in the extreme. To ask what happens when you conform to a uniformed look and question what happens to your own identity as a result," added Hannah. Mel and Hannah's work has caught the public imagination, especially when walking around Norwich as the Mena Twins. "Due to the interactive nature of our work, we encourage public reaction and we get it in abundance," enthused Hannah. 
Mel Rye and Hannah Turner-Voakes as the Mena Twins. |
"People's responses vary from shock and disbelief, interest, disgust, amusement and people often presume that we're advertising something - which we are, our work and its concepts! "We're pleased to say that most people's reactions are very positive and people are generally interested in what we are doing and why." Fellow students at the Norwich School of Art and Design have been supportive of Mel and Hannah's work. "The art school course has given us a good conceptual grounding and has put emphasis on helping us develop our work through experimentation," said Mel. "The tutors, technicians and other students have all been extremely supportive and anticipate our future performances with interest." Mel and Hannah are performing as the Mena Twins during the Norwich School of Art and Design end of year show on Thursday 17 - Wednesday 23 June. If you would like to contact The Mena Twins about their work or donate any size 20 or stretchy clothes, please e-mail the menatwins@yahoo.com | 
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