Two Worlds

13/02/08 - 09/03/08

Piramid Art Center Istanbul
Feridiye Cad. 23-25, Taksim, 34437, Istanbul Turkey
http://www.piramidsanat.com
info@piramidsanat.com
T: (+90) 212 297 31 15-20-21

Piramid Art Center is pleased to present Two Worlds, the first solo exhibition by collaborative duo Maslen & Mehra in Istanbul. Two Worlds showcases selected works from the Mirrored and Native series.

In an age of digital photography and new technologies, Maslen & Mehra, find themselves immersed in non-digital photographic techniques. For the Native and Mirrored series they create temporary interventions in natural and urban landscapes, which are then captured 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 and a place where we can live in our urban realities but somehow still remain connected to nature.

For the Mirrored series, Maslen & Mehra appropriate imagery of urban people, whose silhouettes are then made into mirrored sculptures. By placing them into more natural landscapes and photographing them in this new context, Maslen & Mehra create unusual imagery. The result of these juxtapositions raises issues of 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 often reflect the man-made structures around them. The series includes images made in London, New York, Berlin, Paris, Rome and soon Istanbul.

"Lying behind both the Native images, and the images of the Mirrored series that are their antonym, lies a longing for an Edenic world that perhaps never truly existed in fact. I think it is part of the fascination of these works that they both preach a certain kind of morality, a morality of respect for nature, and at the same time question it. You can inhabit these scenes, but only as a ghost. The problems they pose are ultimately insoluble - there are no slick solutions to be found here." Edward Lucie-Smith" *

(Tim) Maslen and (Jennifer) Mehra currently live and work in London. They have been the subject of several solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows. Further solo exhibitions in 2008 include Shadow Lands, at Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York (17/01/08 - 23/02/08), Maslen & Mehra, at MK Contemporary in the UK (12/01/08 - 02/03/08) and a two-person exhibition at First Gallery Via Margutta Rome.

Piramid Art Center is founded by Turkish artist-writer and political activist Bedri Baykam in the heart of Istanbul, Taksim Square and functions as a democratic arena for emerging artists as well as established, from all over the world since 2006.

* Indicates quote taken from catalogue essay published by MK Contemporary UK 2008.