Artshole.co.uk - Rhodes + Mann

Over the last 18 months Melanie Manchot has been making work in Moscow. Focusing closely on the lives of a number of young women, Manchot has investigated the impact of recent political upheaval on their generation, especially the demise of old political ideologies in the early nineties which led to widespread 'westernisation' and the influx of an unfamiliar youth culture.

Moscow Girls are portrait photographs of these women in specific locations chosen by them as sites of personal significance. In addition, there is a series of directly translated spoken stories that provide a compelling insight into the lives and times of these young women. In this exhibition, the images and sound coexist but are presented independently, hence the individual stories are not now linked to any particular portrait.

During the early nineties, when history took a drastic turn, these women were teenagers, their personal lives were vulnerable and their identities developing. Like many western teenagers, they were challenged to construct their lives and their sense of self. Many of these young women responded to a particularly western pressure: the intense desire for beauty, both their own and that of the material goods that they have chosen to adorn themselves with. In stark contrast to the polished images they present, their stories encompass shocking accounts of loss and crisis and include poignant tales of their dreams, aspirations and misadventures.

In these works Manchot investigates the possible conjunctures between photographic portraiture and narrated histories. By placing image and sound side by side, an investigative space is developed where larger historical and political trajectories are revealed. At the core of this work is an examination of the dialogue between the documentary and the fictional, in both personal image, adopted and constructed, and personal narrative.

Melanie Manchot is having a solo exhibition at the Photographers Gallery,
London which opens on January 19th 2005.