SHE'S A WOMAN by Metalhead Melankolis
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: MIXED MEDIA
Dimensions: 14 x 27 cm
Year: 2026
Price: $1111.00 USD
Status: available
She’s A Woman (Vol. 1 | Slide 2) is one of my favorite collage series from the early days of taking collage seriously, back in 2023. I had so much fun making these pieces. For a while, I felt like a kid again. I was excited just cutting up old magazines, putting fragments together, and sticking them down without overthinking where they should go. The best part was working around the central figure, Kelly Tandiono, whose striking face and captivating pose gave the whole piece its character. Her photograph was taken from an old issue of Cosmopolitan. Somehow, everything just fell into place. Unfortunately, like The Faceless, this work wasn’t archived properly and eventually got damaged. But that’s okay. I learned something from it. What matters most is that I still remember making it. The feeling, the process, and all the little decisions I made along the way. Whenever I look back at it, I’m reminded of why I started making collages in the first place. For She’s A Woman (Vol. 2 | Slide 3), I once again used Kelly Tandiono photograph as the foundation, from same issue of Cosmopolitan. This piece came from the same joy I felt while making Vol. 1. It was later shown at SELF, SEEN held at 65 W 11th St, Basement, New York, last May. The exhibition was organized by friends at Practicing Curating from The New School, and they were incredibly helpful throughout the whole process. It was a hell of an experience, and I’m genuinely glad this little piece got to travel that far. Unfortunately, Vol. 2 met the same fate as Vol. 1, only with much more serious damage. So I decided to bring Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 together into a single piece, which you can see on the first slide. Even so, I’m damn proud of both of these works! ✂ Updated September 2026 The work diligently crafted using a combination of acrylic paint, oil pastel, HVS paper, matte art paper, flower, and magazine cutouts by Metalhead Melankolis. Framed in A4 size.
Why collect this work?
A sharply bounded seated figure is packed with mismatched facial and bodily fragments. The singular title, “SHE’S A WOMAN,” meets an image in which womanhood is assembled from many competing representations rather than secured by one face.
- The artist reports using a photograph of Kelly Tandiono from Cosmopolitan as a foundation. Its partial concealment shifts attention from an individual likeness to the editorial choices through which a public image is remade.
- Repeated eyes dominate the narrow head, while a recognisable arm and hand stabilise the lower body. This uneven distribution makes looking feel more central than physical action.
- The documented mix includes magazine cutouts, two paper types, acrylic, oil pastel and a flower. Found photographs can therefore meet drawn or painted interventions while retaining abrupt differences of scale and source.
- The work provides a concrete case for considering how magazine imagery breaks a person into selectable features, then how collage can expose and rearrange that visual sorting.
About the Artist
Metalhead Melankolis
Metalhead Melankolis is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: Mixed Media Collage. Based in Jakarta, ID.
Nationality: Indonesian
Metalhead Melankolis is a poet who has a strong attachment to the art of collage.
