Brent Dedas & Meena Khalili: Works on Paper

“Concurrent solo exhibitions” from a dynamic couple creating unique handmade images capturing Louisville

B R E N T D E D A S
His work explores the connection between science and art; each work the outcome of an ongoing experiment. His artistic intent is to allow for a loss of control. By engaging materials that have a voice of their own, an interesting visual conversation can ensue. In this series of work, honeybees create the reaction as their presence is recorded over long exposures via the cyanotype process.

This is a collaboration with living honey bees, resulting in large works on paper. As honeybees arrive to the image they become an unpredictable part of the process and I adjust and adapt to try and control their movement on the image surface—to some extent “organizing chaos.” The bees both create the
image while destroying and feeding upon it.

M E E N A K H A L I L I
The child of an immigrant, Meena has established a sense of peace in what it means to be an outsider. The works she creates are a record of her experience. The series New in LOU 365 is her record of Louisville as a new transplant. She travels with sketchbooks and tools on a mission to create images with a pulse, which exude the experience of her surroundings.

Collage is used throughout this work to develop a narrative between text and image for the viewer. Thus, a “text”-ural history is incorporated into the process of image creation; most of the papers used are found in antique shops in the Louisville metro area, and many of them date from the 1800’s to the mid-20th century, a time of developing industry and growth of the river city’s economy. As a first-generation Iranian American, her fascination with geography, impermanence, history and translation informs her work.