Event Date:
© Mona Kuhn 2021.
This exhibition tells a story about an unrequited love unfolding on different time and space layers as captured by the sensitive lens of photographer Mona Kuhn. The story's protagonist is a mysterious woman, purportedly a past lover of the architect Rudolph Schindler, who longs for his presence as she sneaks into his vacant and shadowy house. By adopting techniques employed by the surrealists at the time the house was built, Kuhn explores the power of photography to play with one's temporal and spatial senses. Additionally, the photographer emphasizes the fiction's psychic and emotional drive investing the portrait of the house with a phenomenological dimension. Corresponding to the story's elusiveness, the exhibition takes the form of large projections, which, choreographed with original music, underscore the fiction's spatial and temporal qualities. Archival materials from the Schindler collection—the genesis of this innovative audiovisual project—complement the installation.
835 Kings Road, a Photography Fable by Mona Kuhn is organized by the AD&A Museum in collaboration with Mona Kuhn, composer Boris Salchow, Associate Professor of Theater Design Greg Mitchell and graphic designer Wonho Lee. The exhibition has received generous support from Victoria Hendler Broom, Kai Loebach and Lee Miller, Sharyn and Bruce Charnas, Carol Vernon and Robert Turbin, Diana Miller and Brian Hershkowitz and the Joseph S. Melchione Endowed Fund for Photography. Special thanks to Muriel de Gracia Wittenberg, Lucy Lu, Vanessa Rivera-Herrera, Juan Heras, and Lawrence Scher.
About the artist and composer:
Acclaimed for her contemporary depiction, Kuhn is considered a leading artist in the world of figurative discourse. Throughout a career spanning more than twenty years, the underlying theme of her work is her reflection on humanity´s longing for spiritual connections and solidarity. As she solidified her photographic style, Kuhn created a notable approach to the nude by developing friendships with her subjects, and employing a range of playful visual strategies that use natural light and minimalist settings to evoke a sublime sense of comfort between the human figure and its environment. Her work is natural, restful, and a reinterpretation of the nude in the canon of contemporary art. Kuhn's distinct aesthetic has propelled her as one of the most collectible contemporary art photographers—her work is in private and public collections worldwide and she is represented by galleries across the United States, Europe and Asia.
Boris Salchow is a composer, music producer and sound artist, whose scores have been included in exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Zeiss Planetarium in Berlin, and Wisdome in Los Angeles. In the last 5 years, Salchow’s soundtracks have been performed live in symphony halls across Germany (Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Cologne) and Moscow. In addition to his personal projects, Salchow has created immersive and interactive sound and music installations for commercial clients, such as Adidas, Audi, and BMW, among others. 835 Kings Road is the second collaboration with Mona Kuhn. An immersive multi-channel installation, the score features a 20-piece string section, 5 pianos, solo voices, solo violin, a Japanese Shō flute and a vintage Polymoog synthesizer.
ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMING: