ARTIST:

Odires Mlászho

Plotina (2/3)
Odires Mlászho

For each work, Mlászho takes an image from Phaidon’s 1945 book Roman Portraits, consisting of fullpage black-and-white photographs of Roman portrait busts, and superimposes cut out eyes from Paul Swiridoff ’s 1960s photographs of German politicians. When printed, the two images lock together almost seamlessly, creating what Surrealist collagist Max Ernst called “a spark of poetry”.

Augustus (3/3)
Odires Mlászho

Augustus’s eyes, suddenly beady and glinting, enact this comparison of different ideas of imperiousness: the Roman emperor, a god unmoved by the trivialities of human emotion, is dragged into a modern political sphere of fallibility and corruption. By undermining each images’ claims to authority – the politicians’ eyes are trapped in an unmoving mask of pocked stone – Mlászho ruffles the confidence of power’s images of itself, sowing confusion and ambiguity in the midst of certainty and strength.

Text by Ben Street

Plotina (2/3)
Odires Mlászho
Caesar 17 (2/3)
Odires Mlászho

Most noticeable, perhaps, is the manner in which the blank Roman eyes are enlivened, uncannily, by the juxtaposition; as though suddenly cured of blindness, the stone emperors’ heads now glance about furtively, their stoic indifference turned to active and glowering engagement.

Augustus (3/3)
Odires Mlászho
Porzia (3/3)
Odires Mlászho
Porzia (3/3)
Odires Mlászho

Odires Mlászho’s collages combine two different representations of earthly power as a way of addressing the nature of power’s representation.

Caesar 17 (2/3)
Odires Mlászho

Most noticeable, perhaps, is the manner in which the blank Roman eyes are enlivened, uncannily, by the juxtaposition; as though suddenly cured of blindness, the stone emperors’ heads now glance about furtively, their stoic indifference turned to active and glowering engagement.

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop

    Thank you for your enquiry!

    Your message was sent and one of our Admin team will respond as soon as possible.

    If you have an urgent question, please call our front desk on 020 7811 3070.

    For more information on how we store and use your data please view our privacy policy here. You can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time by clicking on the links below the emails we send you.

    Essential Information Before Your Visit:
    Click Plan Your Visit for full information on upcoming closures.

    Register for email updates
    Be the first to hear about the latest Saatchi Gallery exhibitions, events, offers and news