Melanie Manchot: White Light Black Snow

Melanie Manchot White Light Black Snow

Installation Photography Peter Mallet All artworks © the artist

a kind of drawing. The scene is highly formal yet balances notions of nature and human agency. It also offers an echo of Manchot’s previous film works using choreography, dancing and processions.

A major survey exhibition, ‘Open Ended Now’ will run at the Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Paris, from 20 October 2018 – 24 February 2019.

Melanie Manchot The Hut 2017 C-print 63 × 90 cm

 Melanie Manchot Painted Rectangle 2017 C-print 63 × 90 cm

Melanie Manchot The Model 2018 C-print, Perspex, plaster plinth 118 × 20 × 25 cm

 • P RA A

Directors Ben Tufnell, Matt Watkins Gallery Manager Leanne Parks Exhibitions and Sales Marta Jiménez Tubau Gallery Assistant Ryan Kearney

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Parafin 18 Woodstock Street London W1C 2AL +44 (0)20 7495 1969 info@parafin.co.uk www.parafin.co.uk — @parafinlondon

exemplifies many of these concerns. From an aerial viewpoint we see a dark horse being led into a blank snowy landscape and then walking in a circle, inscribing a trail of footprints into the snow, creating

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Cover: Melanie Manchot Above/Below 2017

Cadence (2018) is a new film work which

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Building on Manchot’s previous projects responding to the landscape, community and tourism-led economic infrastructure of Engelberg in Switzerland, ‘White Light Black Snow’ constitutes a photographic investigation into and meditation upon the material qualities and conditions of white, specifically in relation to snow and ice. As with many of Manchot’s projects, the work may be considered as a form of extended research. The starting point here is the snow that not only defines and forms

To enhance this indeterminacy, Manchot adopts a diverse range of display strategies.

Photographs are presented on shelves, as lightboxes, and balanced precariously on cones, as well as conventionally framed and hung. Manchot also makes a subtle intervention into the space by painting every wall in the main gallery with a different paint, all of which have ‘snow’ in their name.

Snow – as an archetype of ‘white’ – is in fact infinitely various and may appear to contain many colours.

GLAN

‘White Light Black Snow’ is Manchot’s first extended body of photographic work in a number of years, despite the medium being central to her practice. Recently Manchot’s projects have focussed primarily on film, video and elements of performance and in 2017 she was shortlisted for the prestigious Jarman Award by Film London. However, Manchot first came to prominence as an artist using photography in the 1990s and has described it as ‘the backbone to everything I do and to how I think visually.

Cameras, whether still or moving, are crucial devices shaping the construction of the work. To me, cameras are not simply machines that generate the images I wish to make; more importantly, they are an organising principle, an apparatus that becomes part of a set of relations I wish to create.’

the landscape of the valley but also drives the leisure economy that is crucial to Engelberg’s ongoing existence. Manchot’s images probe the materiality of all this whiteness as well as the contrasting darkness of rock and concrete, both by day and at night. Snow and ice are revealed as physically precarious, archetypes of an endangered natural materiality, both beautiful and abject. But the works also engage with photography itself, challenging the ability of the camera to ‘see’ and ‘reproduce’ white. As Manchot has said: ‘Photography’s medium is light. Light and time are at the core of photographic language, and meaning itself resides in how light renders the image, it models not only what we see, but how we read a photograph.’

Related are the ways in which the exhibition enquires into degrees of artifice. The first work we encounter is a photograph of a model of the town of Engelberg, an image of a representation, an abstraction of the space that contains the various locations featured in the exhibition. This image and many others appear to exist at the threshold of the real. Within the exhibition, landscapes resemble models, scale is hard to discern, animals may or may not be alive or taxidermied, and we question what we are looking at, what is real and what is a construction, what is being photographed and what is represented.

N

‘White Light Black Snow’ is the first solo exhibition at Parafin by the acclaimed London-based German artist Melanie Manchot (born 1966, Witten, Germany).

Manchot’s diverse and research-driven practice employs a range of media including performance, photography, video, film and sound. Her long-standing areas of enquiry range from portraiture to participation, and to questions of individual and collective identities. The exhibition includes a new body of photographic work, which is being shown for the first time, and the premiere of a new video work, Cadence.

E

Melanie Manchot White Light Black Snow — 28 September – 17 November 2018

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Installation Photography Peter Mallet All artworks © the artist

a kind of drawing. The scene is highly formal yet balances notions of nature and human agency. It also offers an echo of Manchot’s previous film works using choreography, dancing and processions.

A major survey exhibition, ‘Open Ended Now’ will run at the Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Paris, from 20 October 2018 – 24 February 2019.

Melanie Manchot The Hut 2017 C-print 63 × 90 cm

 Melanie Manchot Painted Rectangle 2017 C-print 63 × 90 cm

Melanie Manchot The Model 2018 C-print, Perspex, plaster plinth 118 × 20 × 25 cm

 • P RA A

Directors Ben Tufnell, Matt Watkins Gallery Manager Leanne Parks Exhibitions and Sales Marta Jiménez Tubau Gallery Assistant Ryan Kearney

D

— 02

Parafin 18 Woodstock Street London W1C 2AL +44 (0)20 7495 1969 info@parafin.co.uk www.parafin.co.uk — @parafinlondon

exemplifies many of these concerns. From an aerial viewpoint we see a dark horse being led into a blank snowy landscape and then walking in a circle, inscribing a trail of footprints into the snow, creating



F

DON •

Cover: Melanie Manchot Above/Below 2017

Cadence (2018) is a new film work which

N

Building on Manchot’s previous projects responding to the landscape, community and tourism-led economic infrastructure of Engelberg in Switzerland, ‘White Light Black Snow’ constitutes a photographic investigation into and meditation upon the material qualities and conditions of white, specifically in relation to snow and ice. As with many of Manchot’s projects, the work may be considered as a form of extended research. The starting point here is the snow that not only defines and forms

To enhance this indeterminacy, Manchot adopts a diverse range of display strategies.

Photographs are presented on shelves, as lightboxes, and balanced precariously on cones, as well as conventionally framed and hung. Manchot also makes a subtle intervention into the space by painting every wall in the main gallery with a different paint, all of which have ‘snow’ in their name.

Snow – as an archetype of ‘white’ – is in fact infinitely various and may appear to contain many colours.

GLAN

‘White Light Black Snow’ is Manchot’s first extended body of photographic work in a number of years, despite the medium being central to her practice. Recently Manchot’s projects have focussed primarily on film, video and elements of performance and in 2017 she was shortlisted for the prestigious Jarman Award by Film London. However, Manchot first came to prominence as an artist using photography in the 1990s and has described it as ‘the backbone to everything I do and to how I think visually.

Cameras, whether still or moving, are crucial devices shaping the construction of the work. To me, cameras are not simply machines that generate the images I wish to make; more importantly, they are an organising principle, an apparatus that becomes part of a set of relations I wish to create.’

the landscape of the valley but also drives the leisure economy that is crucial to Engelberg’s ongoing existence. Manchot’s images probe the materiality of all this whiteness as well as the contrasting darkness of rock and concrete, both by day and at night. Snow and ice are revealed as physically precarious, archetypes of an endangered natural materiality, both beautiful and abject. But the works also engage with photography itself, challenging the ability of the camera to ‘see’ and ‘reproduce’ white. As Manchot has said: ‘Photography’s medium is light. Light and time are at the core of photographic language, and meaning itself resides in how light renders the image, it models not only what we see, but how we read a photograph.’

Related are the ways in which the exhibition enquires into degrees of artifice. The first work we encounter is a photograph of a model of the town of Engelberg, an image of a representation, an abstraction of the space that contains the various locations featured in the exhibition. This image and many others appear to exist at the threshold of the real. Within the exhibition, landscapes resemble models, scale is hard to discern, animals may or may not be alive or taxidermied, and we question what we are looking at, what is real and what is a construction, what is being photographed and what is represented.

N

‘White Light Black Snow’ is the first solo exhibition at Parafin by the acclaimed London-based German artist Melanie Manchot (born 1966, Witten, Germany).

Manchot’s diverse and research-driven practice employs a range of media including performance, photography, video, film and sound. Her long-standing areas of enquiry range from portraiture to participation, and to questions of individual and collective identities. The exhibition includes a new body of photographic work, which is being shown for the first time, and the premiere of a new video work, Cadence.

E

Melanie Manchot White Light Black Snow — 28 September – 17 November 2018

O IN • L

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Melanie Manchot Janet with Ermine 2018 C-print 39 × 54 cm

 Melanie Manchot Barbara with Ermine 2018 C-print 39 × 54 cm

 Melanie Manchot Stella with Ermine 2018 C-print 39 × 54 cm

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Melanie Manchot The Animals (Group of Five) 2017 C-print 80 × 120 cm

 Melanie Manchot The Animals (Group of Four) 2017 C-print 80 × 120 cm

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Melanie Manchot Janet with Ermine 2018 C-print 39 × 54 cm

 Melanie Manchot Barbara with Ermine 2018 C-print 39 × 54 cm

 Melanie Manchot Stella with Ermine 2018 C-print 39 × 54 cm



Melanie Manchot The Animals (Group of Five) 2017 C-print 80 × 120 cm

 Melanie Manchot The Animals (Group of Four) 2017 C-print 80 × 120 cm

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Melanie Manchot Cadence 2018 4k video, silent, 4’11” minutes Dimensions variable

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Melanie Manchot Cadence 2018 4k video, silent, 4’11” minutes Dimensions variable

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Melanie Manchot Sahara Dust 2017 C-print 40 × 60 cm

 Melanie Manchot Cold Blood 2018 C-print 80 × 120 cm

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Melanie Manchot Traces 2017 C-print 100 × 150 cm

 Melanie Manchot Cadence (video stills) 2018 4k video, silent, 4’11” minutes Dimensions variable

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Melanie Manchot Sahara Dust 2017 C-print 40 × 60 cm

 Melanie Manchot Cold Blood 2018 C-print 80 × 120 cm

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Melanie Manchot Traces 2017 C-print 100 × 150 cm

 Melanie Manchot Cadence (video stills) 2018 4k video, silent, 4’11” minutes Dimensions variable

 — 08

— 09

Melanie Manchot Sahara Dust (Night) 2018 C-print 40 × 60 cm

 Melanie Manchot Night Tracks 2017 C-print 70 × 100 cm

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Melanie Manchot Above/Below 2017 C-print 80 × 120 cm

 Melanie Manchot The Lake 2017 C-print 80 × 120 cm

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Melanie Manchot Sahara Dust (Night) 2018 C-print 40 × 60 cm

 Melanie Manchot Night Tracks 2017 C-print 70 × 100 cm

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Melanie Manchot Above/Below 2017 C-print 80 × 120 cm

 Melanie Manchot The Lake 2017 C-print 80 × 120 cm

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Melanie Manchot Remains (Row of Four) 2018 Lightbox/ C-print 80 × 100 cm

 Melanie Manchot Remains (End of the World) 2018 C-print 66 × 100 cm

 Melanie Manchot Remains (The Woods) 2018 C-print 56 × 100 cm

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Melanie Manchot Biography — Born 1966, Witten, Germany Lives and works in London Education — 1990-92 Royal College of Art, London, MFA in Photography 1989-90 City University, London, MA in Arts & Education 1988-89 New York University, New York Selected Solo Exhibitions — 2019 Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland 2018 ‘Open Ended Now’, MAC VAL,

Paris, France

‘White Light Black Snow’, Parafin,

London, UK 2017 ‘11/18’, Galerie m, Bochum, Germany

‘Dance (All Night, London)’,

Art Night, London, UK 2016 ‘People Places Propositions’,

Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK

‘Dance (All Night, Paris)’,

Herrenhausen Kunstfestspiele,

Hannover, Germany

‘Twelve’, Peckham, Platform, London,

Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, Castlefield,

Manchester, UK, and Galerie m,

Bochum, Germany 2015 ‘The Gift’, Bloomberg Space, London,UK

‘11/18’, fig-2, ICA, London, UK 2014 ‘The Hall’, Its All About the River

Festival, Plymouth, UK

‘Tracer’, Oriel Davies, Newtown,

Wales, UK 2013 ‘Tracer’, Baltic 39, Newcastle, UK

‘Leap after The Great Ecstasy’,

Carslaw St Lukes, London, UK 2012 ‘The Continuous Still’, Toronto

Photography Festival, Canada

‘Videoart’ at Midnight, Screening,

Babylon Cinema, Berlin, Germany 2011 ‘Leap after The Great Ecstasy’,

Galerie m, Bochum, Germany

‘Gathering’, Fabrica, Brighton, UK

‘Dance (All Night, Paris)’,

Nuit Blanche, Paris, France 2010 ‘Celebration (Cyprus Street)’,

The Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK 2009 ‘Celebration Studio’, The

Whitechapel Gallery, The Street

Program, London, UK 2008 ‘May happiness knock you over’,

Brighton Museum, UK 2007 ‘Shave’, Galerie m, Bochum, Germany

‘Security’, Goff + Rosenthal,

New York, USA 2006 ‘Security’, Fred (London), UK

‘Moscow Girls und andere

Geschichten’, Haus am Waldsee,

Berlin, Germany 2005 ‘Stories from Russia’, The Photogra phers Gallery, London, UK 2004 ‘Moscow Girls’, Rhodes + Mann

Gallery, London, UK 2003 ‘Love is a stranger’, Leicester City

Art Gallery, UK 2002 Cornerhouse Manchester, UK

Portland Institute for Contemporary

Art, Portland, Oregon, USA

Staedtische Galerie Wolfsburg,

Wolfsburg, Germany

Focalpoint Gallery, Southend, UK

University of Illinois Art Gallery, USA 2001 Fotogalerie in der Feuerwache,

Mannheim, Germany 2000 Intimate Distance, Ffotogallery,

Cardiff, Wales 1999 ‘look at you loving me’, Poster

Project, Bucknell University,

Pennsylvania, USA 1998 ‘look at you loving me’, Zelda

Cheatle Gallery, London, UK Selected Recent Group Exhibitions — 2018 ‘Many & Beautiful Things’, Newlyn

Art Gallery, Newlyn, UK

‘Hooked’, Science Gallery, London, UK

‘Actions. The image of the world

can be different’, Kettle’s Yard,

Cambridge, UK 2017 ‘Transient Space’, Parafin, London, UK

‘The Kiss’, Musee des Beaux-Arts de

Calais, France

‘Il sont tous des sang-melee’, MAC VAL,

Paris, France

‘Group Therapy’, UNSW Gallery,

Suydney, Australia 2016 ‘Marl Video Art Award’, Skulpturen museum Glaskasten, Marl, Germany

‘Changing City – Shifting Spaces’, 2015 ‘Festival of the Unconscious’,

Freud Museum, London, UK

‘Group Therapy’, FACT, Liverpool, UK

‘Walking Sculpture’, deCordova

Sculpture Park and Museum, Boston, USA 2014 ‘The Rhythm is. . .’, Museum

Folkwang, Essen, Germany

‘In the Heat of the Night’, Kunstverein

Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany

‘Walk On’, Plymouth Art Center and

mac, Birmingham, UK 2013 ‘Walk On’, Pittshanger Manor

Museum, London, Northern Gallery

of Contemporary Art, Sunderland and

Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, UK 2012 ‘Wunder’, Museum fuer Gegenwart skunst, Hamburg, Germany

‘Situations’, MAC VAL, Paris, France 2011 ‘Wunder’, Museum Deichtorhallen,

Hamburg, Germany

‘Nuit Blanche’, Paris, France 2010 ‘Emporte Moi/Sweep me off my feet’,

MAC VAL, Paris, France 2009 ‘Journeys with No Return’, Akbank

Istanbul, Istanbul Biennial, Turkey

‘Thessaloniki Biennale 2: Art In Times

of Uncertainty’, Thessaloniki, Greece

‘Insomniac Promenades, Sleeping/

Dreaming in Contemporary Art’,

Petach-Tikva Museum, Israel 2007 ‘Global Feminisms’, The Brooklyn

Museum, New York, Davis Museum &

Cultural Center, Wellesley, Mass, USA

‘A Question of Gesture’, Fotohof,

Salzburg, Austria

‘The Naked Portrait’, Scottish Nation al Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh and

Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK

‘New Forest Pavilion’, 52nd La

Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

Public Collections — Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London, UK Mead Art Gallery, Warwick University, Warwick, UK King’s College Collection, Cambridge, UK Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, USA Samek Art Museum, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, USA FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Angouleme, France Staedtische Gallery Wolfsburg, Germany DG Bank Collection, Germany Unilever Collection, UK — 15

Melanie Manchot Remains (Row of Four) 2018 Lightbox/ C-print 80 × 100 cm

 Melanie Manchot Remains (End of the World) 2018 C-print 66 × 100 cm

 Melanie Manchot Remains (The Woods) 2018 C-print 56 × 100 cm



Melanie Manchot Biography — Born 1966, Witten, Germany Lives and works in London Education — 1990-92 Royal College of Art, London, MFA in Photography 1989-90 City University, London, MA in Arts & Education 1988-89 New York University, New York Selected Solo Exhibitions — 2019 Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland 2018 ‘Open Ended Now’, MAC VAL,

Paris, France

‘White Light Black Snow’, Parafin,

London, UK 2017 ‘11/18’, Galerie m, Bochum, Germany

‘Dance (All Night, London)’,

Art Night, London, UK 2016 ‘People Places Propositions’,

Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK

‘Dance (All Night, Paris)’,

Herrenhausen Kunstfestspiele,

Hannover, Germany

‘Twelve’, Peckham, Platform, London,

Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, Castlefield,

Manchester, UK, and Galerie m,

Bochum, Germany 2015 ‘The Gift’, Bloomberg Space, London,UK

‘11/18’, fig-2, ICA, London, UK 2014 ‘The Hall’, Its All About the River

Festival, Plymouth, UK

‘Tracer’, Oriel Davies, Newtown,

Wales, UK 2013 ‘Tracer’, Baltic 39, Newcastle, UK

‘Leap after The Great Ecstasy’,

Carslaw St Lukes, London, UK 2012 ‘The Continuous Still’, Toronto

Photography Festival, Canada

‘Videoart’ at Midnight, Screening,

Babylon Cinema, Berlin, Germany 2011 ‘Leap after The Great Ecstasy’,

Galerie m, Bochum, Germany

‘Gathering’, Fabrica, Brighton, UK

‘Dance (All Night, Paris)’,

Nuit Blanche, Paris, France 2010 ‘Celebration (Cyprus Street)’,

The Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK 2009 ‘Celebration Studio’, The

Whitechapel Gallery, The Street

Program, London, UK 2008 ‘May happiness knock you over’,

Brighton Museum, UK 2007 ‘Shave’, Galerie m, Bochum, Germany

‘Security’, Goff + Rosenthal,

New York, USA 2006 ‘Security’, Fred (London), UK

‘Moscow Girls und andere

Geschichten’, Haus am Waldsee,

Berlin, Germany 2005 ‘Stories from Russia’, The Photogra phers Gallery, London, UK 2004 ‘Moscow Girls’, Rhodes + Mann

Gallery, London, UK 2003 ‘Love is a stranger’, Leicester City

Art Gallery, UK 2002 Cornerhouse Manchester, UK

Portland Institute for Contemporary

Art, Portland, Oregon, USA

Staedtische Galerie Wolfsburg,

Wolfsburg, Germany

Focalpoint Gallery, Southend, UK

University of Illinois Art Gallery, USA 2001 Fotogalerie in der Feuerwache,

Mannheim, Germany 2000 Intimate Distance, Ffotogallery,

Cardiff, Wales 1999 ‘look at you loving me’, Poster

Project, Bucknell University,

Pennsylvania, USA 1998 ‘look at you loving me’, Zelda

Cheatle Gallery, London, UK Selected Recent Group Exhibitions — 2018 ‘Many & Beautiful Things’, Newlyn

Art Gallery, Newlyn, UK

‘Hooked’, Science Gallery, London, UK

‘Actions. The image of the world

can be different’, Kettle’s Yard,

Cambridge, UK 2017 ‘Transient Space’, Parafin, London, UK

‘The Kiss’, Musee des Beaux-Arts de

Calais, France

‘Il sont tous des sang-melee’, MAC VAL,

Paris, France

‘Group Therapy’, UNSW Gallery,

Suydney, Australia 2016 ‘Marl Video Art Award’, Skulpturen museum Glaskasten, Marl, Germany

‘Changing City – Shifting Spaces’, 2015 ‘Festival of the Unconscious’,

Freud Museum, London, UK

‘Group Therapy’, FACT, Liverpool, UK

‘Walking Sculpture’, deCordova

Sculpture Park and Museum, Boston, USA 2014 ‘The Rhythm is. . .’, Museum

Folkwang, Essen, Germany

‘In the Heat of the Night’, Kunstverein

Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany

‘Walk On’, Plymouth Art Center and

mac, Birmingham, UK 2013 ‘Walk On’, Pittshanger Manor

Museum, London, Northern Gallery

of Contemporary Art, Sunderland and

Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, UK 2012 ‘Wunder’, Museum fuer Gegenwart skunst, Hamburg, Germany

‘Situations’, MAC VAL, Paris, France 2011 ‘Wunder’, Museum Deichtorhallen,

Hamburg, Germany

‘Nuit Blanche’, Paris, France 2010 ‘Emporte Moi/Sweep me off my feet’,

MAC VAL, Paris, France 2009 ‘Journeys with No Return’, Akbank

Istanbul, Istanbul Biennial, Turkey

‘Thessaloniki Biennale 2: Art In Times

of Uncertainty’, Thessaloniki, Greece

‘Insomniac Promenades, Sleeping/

Dreaming in Contemporary Art’,

Petach-Tikva Museum, Israel 2007 ‘Global Feminisms’, The Brooklyn

Museum, New York, Davis Museum &

Cultural Center, Wellesley, Mass, USA

‘A Question of Gesture’, Fotohof,

Salzburg, Austria

‘The Naked Portrait’, Scottish Nation al Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh and

Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK

‘New Forest Pavilion’, 52nd La

Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

Public Collections — Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London, UK Mead Art Gallery, Warwick University, Warwick, UK King’s College Collection, Cambridge, UK Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, USA Samek Art Museum, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, USA FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Angouleme, France Staedtische Gallery Wolfsburg, Germany DG Bank Collection, Germany Unilever Collection, UK — 15