Mona Kuhn "Bordeaux Series"

Flowers

poster for Mona Kuhn "Bordeaux Series"

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“...within a womb, a house or the parameters of a dream...a mother’s lap takes the form of a chair” Wayne Vesti Andersen

Flowers presents an exhibition of new photographs by Mona Kuhn.

Each year Mona Kuhn embarks on a twenty-six hour crossing, through 9 time zones, from her house in Los Angeles to her small isolated home situated on a remote region near Bordeaux, France. There is no electricity but a collection of oil lamps, the house is minimal with no superfluous material items but abundant with spirit. During the course of this yearly interval, existing here provides a sanctuary of simple life in an unembellished dwelling. Time spent is cherished by extended family and friends.

As I step into this house, I enter a parallel reality that unravels and exists only for a few months of the year. We cook and gather around the table. We speak plainly together of ourselves, and it feels as though these moments we have shared over the years are strung together into a braid of tales. As the night arrives, we are surrounded by the dark silhouettes of pine trees and the sensual play of wind on foliage. The smell of resin mixes with the verbena in our tea. The days fill up with a sense of abandon, as if life in between never mattered. Mona Kuhn

Close friends and family have their portrait taken in the same chair in the same room, with a red patterned fabric behind them. Bare natural light floods into the room.

It is a rather classic approach to the portrait, which I feel is in sympathy with the plainness and simplicity of the place. I don’t mention how my subjects should pose. I prefer to let them find their own positions and body language, allowing the method of expression to seek its own paths. Over recent years, I have photographed my visitors – friends who are closest to me, sometimes friends of friends, who come to stay for a while or at times just for a few moments – just like that, in the same room with the same chair. The photographs are similar to bread crumbs that I throw on the path to help me memorize a way back to this place and these emotions. Mona Kuhn

Born in 1969, Mona Kuhn has exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe and South America. Four monographs on the artist’s works, Photographs (2004), Evidence (2007), Native (2009) and Bordeaux Series (2011), have been published by Steidl. Her work is held in collections including the Musee de la Photographie de Charleroi, Belgium; Miami Art Museum, Florida; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; Nicolaus von Oesterreich Collection, Frankfurt; di Rosa Foundation, San Francisco; Sir Elton John Collection, England; and the Buhl Foundation, New York.

[Image: Mona Kuhn "Portrait 42" (2011) Chromogenic print 15 x 15 in. Edition of 8]

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Schedule

from February 24, 2012 to March 24, 2012

Opening Reception on 2012-02-23 from 18:00 to 20:00
Artist Talk: Saturday February 25th 4pm

Artist(s)

Mona Kuhn

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