‘Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea’ By Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick

Myartisreal·November 22, 2020

‘Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea’ By Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick

Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick, two artists both born in 1964, one in New York and the other from London. They met while attending art school at Washington University in St. Louis and this is when they began their now twenty-plus year collaboration. Working in the medium of photography and Installation art, Kahn and Selesnick are storytellers, each series of works exploring different aspects of our past, present, and future but most often ping-ponging back and forth between past and future within the same works. In this series ‘Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea’ we find two women alone on the planet of Mars with remains of a previous civilization.

The images are beautifully done with great attention to detail on the costumes and various items used. The images when viewed play out like a movie each image coming together to complete the story. We follow these two women along their journey across this barren landscape, we discover monuments and notice various pieces of technology throughout. In one shot we even see one of the women giving birth and later we see the same baby wearing a similar all-white outfit. We do not know how these two have landed here and what was the cause of the previous civilization to fall into ruin.

While we do not find the answers to what this world is we are viewing we do indeed feel like we are viewing a real place. Kahn and Selesnick’s style is what brings this world to life, their amazing ability to create a world that draws you in and makes you feel something without sound, without dialogue is incredible. They do it with nothing more than set design, costume design, and impressive camera work. Together with their creativity for imaginative world-building and great skill level, it’s no wonder these two artists have made such an impact on the art world.