MASLEN & MEHRA

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Contemporary Artspace
London 1997-2000
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Phoenix
Perth International Arts Festival
Holmes a Court Gallery
11 Brown St
East Perth
Western Australia


February 2003

We have been invited by The Holmes à Court Gallery Perth to exhibit new work during the Perth International Arts Festival in February 2003, the theme for which is Fire. Just before departing for Sydney to begin a three month residency at Artspace we got reports in London of the bushfires in Sydney. The press reported the fires focusing on the sheer devastation. Sensationalism of the event caused a large amount of misinformation to be reported to the public. Headlines screamed "five million trees destroyed!"

Having arrived in Sydney a few months after the fires of 2001 swept through the area, we made contact with a fire ecologist who offered to take us into restricted parts of Heathcote National Park. It was incredible to see how quickly the bush had responded and regenerated in such a short amount of time. Even though some trees were destroyed, many trees survived by various systems of regrowth.

The sensational stories reported in the UK did not really ring true when we looked across the forest of trees covered in furry regrowth and the ground blanketed in seedlings activated by the fire. The negative aspects of fire on the landscape is a far more complex issue in the Australian context. It is not a simple case of complete destruction as the media reported. Many indigenous plants respond positively to fire as long as the fires are not too frequent and the regenerative process has time to work.

We collected some amazing photographs and video footage that we have used as a starting point for the development of a new series of work. The positive effects of fire and the important role that it plays in the ecology of Australia is inspiration for this new body of work.

http://www.holmesacourtgallery.com.au/exhibitions/current.cfm?exhibition_id=58

http://www.perthfestival.com.au/2003_archive/PhoenixMaslenAndMehra.html