Melanie Cove works in drawing, writing filmmaking, performance, installation, and printmaking, and has Masters in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art where she is currently studying for a Masters in Research.
She cares for the legacy of the artist Ben Cove and was recently the co-curator of Ben Cove in Space at Space, Ilford, London.
Melanie is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Twisted Trees Productions, an arts organisation based in Manchester.
Recent Work
Eve in the Garden, or Cassandra Red Blacking pencil on Fabriano paper
160cm x 135cm, 2025
Persephone Caran D' Ache pencil on Fabriano paper
175cm x 150cm, 2026
Self Portrait Talking to the Artist Ben Cove
In the series Self Portrait Talking to the Artist Ben Cove, personal memoir interweaves with the politics of disability.
The texts take various routes into Melanie Cove’s experience living alongside her sibling who was a lifelong wheelchair user: Ben Cove had Osteogenesis Imperfecta, commonly known as Brittle Bone Disease. The storytelling weaves diatribe and humour through recollections, dreams and family mythology to indicate the complexities of Cove’s memories: bemused, bewildered and enraged by the unkindness of ableism, yet bolstered by the relentless, striving hope of advocacy and care.
The film, Self Portrait talking to the Artist Ben Cove; The Revenant can be viewed here.
Self Portrait Talking to the Artist Ben Cove; The Revenant, Sister Shroud
Rag, Bone, Willow and Twine, 2026.
Film stills taken from a film by Bowen Tang
Self Portrait Talking to the Artist Ben Cove; I Dream of Stairs, performance at Kettles Yard, Cambridge, 2026.
With Tonantzin Borrego, Mika Shirahama and Scarlett Hope-Gates, voice recording, high visibility jackets.
You can read the commissioned text by EK Meyerson about the performance Self Portrait talking to the Artist Ben Cove; I Dream of Stairs which took place at Kettles Yard here: Response to Melanie Cove, Kettle’s Yard, 28.01.2026
Photo Neelanchal Gupta
Collaboration
Curatorial
