Mercedes Helnwein – Watching from a safe Distance
Museum Bensheim (Marktplatz 13, 64625 Bensheim)
Mercedes Helnwein’s inspiration lays within the stereotypical everyday and the culture of remembrance in her adopted home of America. Her often large-scale works, painted with oil pastels, do not necessarily refer to concrete stories, but rather show fragmentary evidence of incidents and supply the narrative threads that can be spun out at will by the viewer. The focus is primarily on young women: prom queens, bridesmaids, nurses and girl gangs. She gives these protagonists the permission to be both heroines and anti-heroines, encouraging the lines to blur inexorably. Often accompanying her work is her own writing, photography and her short films, which she uses both as reference material, as well as supplementary elements in her exhibitions. Mercedes Helnwein was born in Vienna in 1979. She entered the public realm as an artist at the age of thirteen when the feminist magazine “Emma” published her comic “Die Männer schlagen zurück”. Today she lives and works in the USA and Ireland, both as a writer and artist. A highlight in this year's annual program is the exhibition “Watching from a safe Distance.” with a selection of works by the internationally renowned artist Mercedes Helnwein.
