Mahr, from the series
"A Few Days in Geneva." 1985 (2)
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"Mari
Mahr's photo-works explore contemporary issues - the state of being an
exile, the partial loss of one culture and the gain of another." Val
Williams
Mari Mahr was born
in Chile. Her parents were Hungarian Jews who sought refuge in Chile during
the Second World War. In 1949 the family returned to Hungary where Mahr
was educated and went on to train and work as a photojournalist. Her parents
were always politically active and she lost her job in Budapest because
of her own political opinions. In 1973 she came to London to study photographic
arts and has lived and worked here since then.
"...the
creation of atmospheres of experience and memory, events and feelings
beyond the edge of the picture, has remained the hallmark of her work."
Tom Evans
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Through Mahr's work
we glimpse fragments of all the personal and cultural influences on her
life, from the 'magic realist' fantasies of Latin America; to the harsh
realities of communist Hungary to the nostalgia of pre-war Europe passed
on in stories and pictures, from mother to daugher.
Mahr generally works
in series, each small collection of black and white images – half
remembered, half invented – weaving dreams and telling tales, a mystery
for us to unravel. Purely visual in form, they nevertheless, inspire a
'reading', in much the same way as a poem. Each image, like a line of
poetry, links the last to the next but also holds a beauty of its own.
In 'Presents for Susanna'
(right) she places small gifts over the image of a childhood friend, offerings
from the present to the past, symbolising friendship over time. 'A Few
Days in Geneva' (above) suggests another trip back in time, the nineteenth
century European architecture providing a backdrop for romance perhaps.
Or maybe, the woman's stockinged ankles, the fragment of Chopin and the
hand pretending to be a bird all symbolise journeys, flight, exile...
Mahr's photo series
challenge the idea of historical fact, implying instead that personal
memories and historical events seep into each other and are threaded through
with myth and fantasy. Many of her works are collaged from the relationships
with her mother, grandmother and daughter. That linkage, and the various
biographical, social and cultural fragments which are passed along it,
signify a search for anchorage among the displacements in her life.
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Mahr, from the series
"Presents from Susanna" 1985 (3)
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Mahr, from the series
"My Daughter, My Darling..." 1992
(4)
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"I
have constructed a stage on which to converse with my daughter. The stage
(her vocation) is set against a Chilean landscape (where I was born and
a place of lifelong concern to my mother). I feel I am here passing on to
my daughter all that has been passed on to me by my mother."
Mari Mahr |
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Mari Mahr makes 'photoworks'
by combining photographs and objects and re-photographing them into constructed
narratives built of dreams, memories and emotions.
STORIES FOR REMEMBERING...
- What would you
make or do, inspired by this artist's work and ideas about memory and
exile?
- Using a combination
of things and images, both public and private, gathered from the past
and the present, construct a collaged portrait of yourself that tells
the story of your life. You could use photocopies, objects, photomontage
or scanned images, digitally combined on a computer.
- Work in a series
to explore the idea of narrative in relation to images. What is the
difference between doing this in black and white or in colour? Imagine
each individual image is a line of poetry. Create a visual poem which
expresses one of your childhood memories, or a story passed down to
you from a parent, grandparent or carer,
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