14 Sep 2012

Impermanent Collection / London

'Archaeology is perhaps the best tool we have for looking ahead, because it provides a deep reading of the direction and momentum of our course through time: what we are, where we have come from, and therefore where we are most likely to be going.' Excerpt from A Short History Of Progress by Ronald Wright

The collaborative artists, MASLEN & MEHRA, will be showing work from their new series based on 3 years research in museums across the globe. Impermanent Collection comprises a series of photo-sculptures and documented temporary installations based on historical and contemporary objects found in museums. Multiple visits to the Victoria & Albert and British Museums, London; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Archaeological Museum, the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum, Istanbul; and the Asian Museum of Civilization in Singapore have resulted in the study and documentation of particular objects. Historical, cultural, political, technological, environmental and scientific references, alongside themes of natural history, all inform this work. References which allude to a conflicted existence on earth faced by cultures today: On one hand an appreciation for the importance of the natural world for our existence and, on the other, an unsustainable rate of consumption. These transformed museum objects offer some disturbing thoughts about the legacy of current generations. They suggest a connection between civilizations 'progress' and the unsustainable structures we impose to gain it. At the same time, the Impermanent Collection series imbues optimism: Imagery which celebrates diverse cultures and creativity with the hope that current and future generations will learn from the past.

Works by MASLEN & MEHRA are included in collections such as Tattinger Switzerland, Art Es Collecion Madrid, numerous international private collections and more recently the Altered Landscape Collection, Nevada Museum of Art which includes artists such as Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lewis Baltz, Edward Burtynsky, Amy Stein, David Maisel, and Fandra Chang. Solo exhibitions have been staged in New York, London, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Dubai, Istanbul, Sydney and Berlin. A monograph titled MIRRORED is dedicated to two major series of work, the Mirrored and Native series, and was published by Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg with support from the Arts Council Of England and texts by art historian Edward Lucie-Smith and Eugen Blume, curator at the Hamburger Bahnoff Museum Berlin. In 2011, there was a solo presentation of work from these two series for the Scotiabank CONTACT International Photo Festival, Toronto and, in addition, a commissioned public installation of lightboxes was commissioned for Halifax Ferry Terminal. A solo exhibition for Art Month Sydney took place at Conny Dietzschold Gallery in March 2012.

OCCUPY MY TIME was founded in 2006 by Sue Cohen, an artist, curator and educator. This is the first permanent gallery space for OCCUPY MY TIME which has been presenting exciting and intriguing visual arts events in interesting spaces. These spaces were often outside the traditional gallery space and interacted directly with the audience through its choice of fascinating environments.