Melanie Ebenhoch’s work examines the potential force of imagination. Her paintings deal with irritating moments, in which perception begins to stagger, imagination is challenged, and expectations start to waver. Stylistic elements of illusionist painting as well as cinematic presentations interlock in order to question the habitual ways in which they are perceived.
Within the exhibition Fantasieblume, Ebenhoch relates to the specific architecture of VIS. Her in-situ painting reaches beyond a medial engagement with space, declaring it part of the composition. Ebenhoch creates a setting, in which the assignment of representation and contemplation breaks up. The audience becomes part of a staging in which the performance is still outstanding. In a series of miniatures, the artist refers to motifs that reference dramaturgical moments of generating tension or narrative fragments.
The entanglement of theatrical, cinematic, and painterly elements raises the question of the faculty of imagination that, “when it is considered in its freedom […] is productive and spontaneous, not merely re-productive of what is already known, but generative of new forms and figures“ (Linda M. G. Zerilli). Ebenhoch refers to various forms of fantastical representations in order to transform them into a living scenario of experience.
Melanie Ebenhoch (b. 1985, lives and works in Vienna) recently had solo exhibitions at Galerie Tobias Naehring, Leipzig, and For Seasons, Zurich (all in 2018). Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at Pina, Vienna (2018), Palazzio Lancia, Turin (2017), and MAUVE, Vienna (2016). In 2018, she will present a solo show at Kevin Space, Vienna, and in 2019 at Galerie der Stadt Schwaz, Tyrol. Ebenhoch created the 81st issue of the fanzine Black Pages.
Kindly supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and the Federal Chancellery of Austria.
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