Embodiment in art, in pain and in sculpture with Melanie Cooper Pennington
From The Return to Embodiment: consciousness, culture, creativity and flourishing by Kim Rothwell
May 10, 2025 · 1h 2m
About this episode
The episode features a conversation with Melanie Cooper Pennington about her experiences with embodiment and how art has helped her express pain through sculpture.
In this conversation, I am speaking with Melanie Cooper Pennington. We talk about her own fraught experience of embodiment, how art has allowed her to move pain outside of her body, and how her love of bodies has propelled her sculpture. Melanie Cooper Pennington is an interdisciplinary artist living in Bloomington, Indiana. Pennington recently had solo exhibitions at the I Fell Gallery, (Bloomington, IN), International Center for the Arts, (Monte Castello, Italy) New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, (New Harmony, IN) and at Artlink Contemporary (Fort Wayne, IN) and was featured in group shows at Distortion Gallery(Beacon NY), sUgAr Gallery at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR), ACRE Projects (Chicago, IL), and Manifest Gallery (Cincinnati, OH). She has presented public art projects at Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), Chicago Park District (Chicago, IL), and Indianapolis Art Center (Indianapolis, IN). Pennington teaches as a Lecturer in Sculpture at The Eskenazi School of Art, Indiana University Bloomington. www.melaniepennington.com @melaniecooperpennington
People in this episode
Host: Kim Rothwell
Guest: Melanie Cooper Pennington
Topics covered
- embodiment
- art
- pain
- sculpture
- interdisciplinary art
- public art
- teaching
Keywords
- embodiment
- art
- sculpture
- pain
- interdisciplinary artist
- public art projects
- teaching sculpture
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: I Fell Gallery, International Center for the Arts, New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, Artlink Contemporary, Distortion Gallery, sUgAr Gallery, ACRE Projects, Manifest Gallery, The Eskenazi School of Art
Places: Bloomington, Indiana, Monte Castello, Italy, New Harmony, IN, Fort Wayne, IN, Beacon NY, Fayetteville, AR, Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH, Indianapolis, IN
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