A perspective, somehow, installation view, Karma International, 2015

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A perspective, somehow, installation view, Karma International, 2015

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emotional not sentimental (back), 2015
silicon, fabric, 280 x 500 cm

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emotional not sentimental (detail), 2015

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A perspective, somehow, installation view, Karma International, 2015

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straight, overwhelmed, 2015
sheets, mattress, vinyl glue, wood, 24 x 200 x 180 cm

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A perspective, somehow, installation view, Karma International, 2015

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A perspective, somehow, installation view, Karma International, 2015

all images:
Courtesy the artist and Karma International, Zürich
photo credits: GUNNAR MEIER

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MELANIE MATRANGA’s first solo exhibition in Zürich entitled A perspective, somehow, flirts with the porous, parasitically connected lifestyles and domesticity through an immersive installation that traps the viewer between sculpture and decoration as well as attention and deflection.

Upon initially entering the gallery space, the viewer is confronted with a series of silicon curtains with imprints of doors that divide the gallery and the office space, and entice the viewer to explore the area beyond this physical barrier. The exhibition begins, in fact, with the light beige carpet with dirt from the street trodden onto by visitors. The rug covers the entire exhibition space and reveals a matrix of intricate reliefs onto its surface like a network of veins, which appears to be wire cables running under the carpet.

A series of oversized paper lights and their sprawling cables are positioned in the gallery as well as unusable familiar objects like the bed ‘straight, overwhelmed’ (2015) which invites the visitor to sit or lay down but which appears to be actually uncomfortable since the mattress as well as the pillows and the sheets have been dipped in glue. A playlist near one of the giant pendant lamp shade, and a looped scene of RONALD BRONSTEIN’s film weave through the works—at once too distant to be distinct and too close for comfort.

Each of these objects, moments and positions eventually have a discursive story that highlights displacement, artificiality and the simulation of object and place. According to the press release, the perspectives in MATRANGA‘s exhibition are multiple though the horizon is a constraint.

MELANIE MATRANGA (b. 1985, France) is based in Paris. She was the recipient of the 2014 Frieze Artist Award. Group exhibitions include Europe, Europe at Astrup Fearnley Museum (2014) and The Issues of Our Time at Castillo/ Corrales (2013). She is now represented by Karma International Zürich.

→ A perspective, somehow by MELANIE MATRANGA is on view at Karma International in Zürich until March 14, 2015

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