Tucked away in a quiet corner of Soho, British boutique Pyrus is the unlikely home of The Basement Gallery, an underground haven that displays the best of emerging and established talent.
Thanks to Pyrus’ well-connected owners Lorraine and Ash Johnson, the exhibition space has played host to Geza Szollosi and Debbie Lawson and is rumoured to once have provided a temporary home to Damien Hirst. This month they welcome photographer Matjaz Tancic whose 3-D landscapes represent his tri-city living in London, Ljubljana and Beijing. Walking i-D online through the exhibition, the Slovenian born artist describes his work as “a weird but eye-catching combo of photojournalism and fashion photography, traditional and new media, fiction and reality.”
Layering two photographs on large-scale silk screens to create a 3-D illusion, Matjaz’s landscapes literally appear to be suspended from reality. Provided with a pair of old school 3-D specs, the viewer is taken on a virtual journey via the supernatural exoticism of China’s great walls and lakes, Slovenia’s fairytale-like caves and ivy-covered cliffs, and London’s graphically-proportioned urban cityscapes. Matjaz used a location scout and a 30-strong crew to create the epic imagery, which features models Danni Li and Huang Chaoyan and dresses from the likes of Alexander Wang, Armani and newcomer Maja Mehle.
The finished result has to be seen to be believed as the pop-up 3-D scenes can hardly be done justice on your screens! See for yourself at The Basement Gallery @ Pyrus, Newburgh Street, London.
Matjaz Tancic: Mimicry China Edition runs until October 13th.
Text: Frankie Mathieson
