20/10/2006
Maslen & Mehra
Lacen, Paris
Solo exhibition. Exprmntl galerie, Lacen, Bertrand Grimont with the cooperation of Galerie Caprice Horn Berlin
Solo exhibition
Exprmntl galerie, Lacen, Bertrand Grimont with the cooperation of Galerie Caprice Horn Berlin present parallel to FIAC 06, Show Off, Paris Photo, DIVA, Slick 01 the first solo exhibition in Paris of London based artists MASLEN & MEHRA. The exhibition continues until the 30th of November.
In an age of digital photography and Photoshop trickery, Maslen & Mehra have found themselves immersed in traditional, manual photographic techniques. Creating their photographic work is quite a layered process. They start by photographing the subject matter: for example, for the series in California/ Nevada, they photographed people in London and then fabricated mirrored sculptures based on these original photographs. The real people were photographed in busy urban areas such as Liverpool Street Station and Oxford Street, London. They captured the body language and movement of anonymous people in the throes of their busy working lives.
The sculptures were then set up in various compositions in different contexts and then re-photographed with a medium format film camera. The resulting medium format transparencies are drum-scanned to the maximum size files in order to create high quality prints on aluminium or duratrans (transparency for light-box). The large-scale light-boxes are re-cycled and refurbished advertising displays from the London Underground. They have chosen to re-use existing boxes, shifting the context and meaning of a familiar urban object.
The exhibition in Paris features work created this year in Australia and New Zealand and also work from a trip in 2005 to Death Valley and the Mojave Desert California/Nevada during the most exceptional wildflower season in 100 years.
'as is announced metaphorically by the mirrored images. Nature is much more vast and mighty. It marks the human beings living within its realm, and not the other way around.' quote from Mirrored - the photography of Maslen & Mehra by Eugen Blume the Chief Curator of the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum
To read the full text visit:
http://www.capricehorn.com/galerie/24/24_state.html
Contact Bertrand Grimont +33 (0)685450130 / bertrand.grimont@lacen.fr in order to make an appointment if the opening hours are not suitable for you.
Lacen
57 rue de Bretagne - Paris