NEW YORK.-Priska C. Juschka Fine Art presents Shadow Lands, the collaborative (Tim) Maslen & (Jennifer) Mehra’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Maslen & Mehra explore ideas that revolve around the coexistence of nature and culture in an increasingly complex world.
In an age of digital photography and new technologies, Maslen & Mehra, in their Mirrored and Native series, find themselves immersed in non-digital photographic techniques. For these series they create temporary interventions in natural and urban landscapes, which they then capture with a medium format film camera. The imagery from both these series suggests a place where we can have our cake and eat it too. A paradise where we strive to co-habit with the flora and fauna of our planet (Mirrored series) and a place where we can live in our urban realities but somehow still remain connected to nature (Native series).
For the Mirrored series, Maslen & Mehra appropriate imagery of people, whose silhouettes are then made into mirrored sculptures. By placing them into the landscape and photographing them in this new context, Maslen & Mehra forge an unusual synthesis at first sight: the juxtaposition of highly urban people and wide-open spaces. (Highway 190 Death Valley, USA and Lake Waikaremoana, New Zealand.) The result of these forced symbioses raises issues of the human existence and alludes to the impermanence and fragility of mankind.
In the Native series, Maslen & Mehra research fauna that is, or once was indigenous to the country in which they are photographed. Then, by posing mirrored sculptures of these animals in an urban environment, they in turn reflect the man-made structures around them. (Roe Deer - Docklands - London I, American Eagle - Times Square - New York and Ibex - Louvre - Paris II)
Maslen & Mehra create a sense of urgency in both series which leaves us with questions about our civilisation, its origin and its future, at times when global-warming, global wars and technologies are part of the same world.
(Tim) Maslen was born in Perth, Australia and (Jennifer) Mehra was born in London. Both currently live and work in London. Maslen holds an MFA from Goldsmiths University of London, and Mehra holds a BFA from the National Art School in Sydney, Australia. They have been the subject of several solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows. Forthcoming solo exhibitions in 2008 will include "Two Worlds," at the Piramid Art Centre in Istanbul, Turkey and "Maslen & Mehra," at MK Contemporary in Milton Keynes, UK. Recent exhibitions include the East Wing Collection, which was housed for two years at the Courtauld Institute London and Urban Space, which took place at the Art and Technology Institute Oi Futuro, Rio De Janeiro and Foto Arte Brasilia.
