Enclosed Garden

In this exhibition, the intimate space of the Kabinett is transformed into a grotesque hortus conclusus: a sculpture garden in which distorted memories of Ovid’s Metamorphoses merge into images of strange sensualities, the desire for transformation, and the longing for whimsical paradises.

Tina Hainschwangʼs artworks challenge notions of femininity and perception while often sitting very tangibly between provocation and a plethora of references, both pre-modern and more contemporary. For her exhibition in the Kabinett Gallery, the artist incorporates the notion of a traditional indoor garden as a critical device in the form of an installation. The Kabinett is turned into an interpretative, manipulated version of earthly representations of paradise, especially those found in traditional Greek and Arab references. Thoughtfully using elements of humour and the grotesque, while transforming ideas of virtue into notions of desire, this installation is both figurative and abstract using different aspects of sculpture and relief sculpture. Ideas of transmutation and metamorphosis collide here with reworkings of contemporary femininity and gender fluidity.
 

Tina Hainschwang (*1986, Salzburg) lives and works in Salzburg.
www.tina-hainschwang.com