2013 'The Messenger' Exhibition at C3 Gallery (Collaboration with Tony Cran), Melbourne

Space probe Voyager traverses the depths of space, a diminutive creation of human ingenuity and an overwhelming desire to reach out, to stretch oneself beyond the limits imposed by our beautiful living Earth. The departure of Voyager from its earthly home was but one of the signifiers of the rapidly changing society in the second half the 20th century. Just like Voyagers' message of peaceful exploration and communication with other life forms out there somewhere, the society witnessed an increasing occurrence of a new type of social movement – one advocating non-violence, respect for other cultures and beliefs, a direction toward a more humanistic way of life. The sincere idealism and beliefs in positive change have since been dulled but we as a society again and again witness echoes of this resurging need to reform – be it the recent Occupy protests or countless initiatives by various social/environmental change organisations.

The Messenger presents the Voyager probe as a hand made object, using found or discarded materials - a symbolic representation of societal hopes and the idealism that personifies the counter-culture movement, adorned with accumulated debris of the collective dreams for a better world. A silent audience watches the probe – 1960's counter culture revolutionaries. We sense the pertinent question arising in our mind – can we really succeed at making this form of resistance a way forward? Can we really change things for better, transform our society, or are we just travelling into empty space?

(excerpt from proposal, Mariana Jandova & Tony Cran, 2013)

2012 'Fata Morgana' Exhibition at Seventh Gallery, Melbourne

A tall ornate black booth without any apparent entry points is positioned at the centre of the gallery space. Its dimensions vaguely resemble a photo booth or a church confessional. Upon closer examination, a small circular opening just below half way up its side is revealed, luring the viewer to kneel and take a peek at what's hidden inside.

Once the viewer succumbs to temptation and peeks into the darkness, the booth reveals a peculiar gold like shimmer flickering and glittering in the dark, which gradually becomes recognisable as sunlight emerging from behind leaves of a tree swaying in the wind, a tree that grows just outside the gallery. 

It is through the elaborate concealment which invites fantasies of secrets, treasures or even peep shows that the image of the sunlit tree is transformed into an object of reverence and desire. It becomes a poignant metaphor for any object of desire but remains ultimately inaccessible as a mere reflection of a reflection.

This installation offers an in-sight, not without a touch of humour, into the extraordinary within the mundane. It is a reflection on human curiosity and construction of value systems, the arch of desire and the notion of the unreachable 'treasures' standing on our doorsteps.

(excerpt from proposal, Mariana Jandova, 2012)

2012 'In the Light of Days to Come' Exhibition at Kings ARI gallery, Melbourne

We find ourselves in a time of growing awareness about the world we inhibit. The journey we take from here will in many way decide what kind of future awaits us. Deep space has long held the human imagination captive but with the world in a global financial turmoil we have to ask ourselves is this the dawn or dusk of the space age? Was it worth the billions of dollars invested over the years? Money that perhaps could have been spent on feeding the hungry, or saving habitation here on Earth. We have eagerly ravaged this planet in the name of human progress, progress which is the very driving force of space exploration.

'In the Light of Days to Come' is an installation reflecting on the human drive to reach the stars, which sometimes comes at a high price. Its focal point is the image of the International Space Station that becomes a symbol of this drive as it hovers just beyond the edge of the great big life sustaining bubble that is our world. It is a representation of our thirst for knowledge but also the collaboration of humanity to achieve something greater than itself. It is a totem of the space age.

(excerpt from proposal, Mariana Jandova, 2012)

2012 'Essential Fire' Group Exhibition at Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne

Essential Fire here represents the innate drive to create, to express self, and a reflection on what that means to us. For my contribution to the group show I have created an installation comprising of a home made telescope and an oil-on-canvas painting. 

The image of a burning monk is simultaneously awe inspiring and terrifying. I am at awe because to do such a thing as calmly and peacefully must require an incredible inner strength. I am at awe when I reflect on the human ability to sacrifice self for an ultimate higher cause. I am terrified of the human ability to sacrifice self for a higher cause, especially when one considers the events of the recent decades where we have seen this power be used to horrific ends. After all, what defines a higher cause is incredibly vulnerable to interpretation. 

The image of the burning monk represents a fascination with human mind and spirit to me, its complexities, its beauty and its pitfalls. It is my essential fire, what I burn for. Painting this image is an act of a desire to understand what it is we are made of, as is the act of constructing a scientific instrument which at once enables the viewer to observe the image and hinders it by not allowing a full scale view. And so it is,  that even as we seek to understand things we become increasingly aware of all that is yet obscured. 

(Artist Statement, Mariana Jandova, 2012)

2011 'Final Frontier' exhibition at Trocadero gallery, Melbourne

The infinite blackness of space embodies a deeply ingrained fascination for us. For millennia we have gazed at the night sky and pondered the existence of things much larger than ourselves. So what is it about us that causes such malady? Why do we dream of space travel?

We pay witness to a time where the initial excitement about the future of space travel has turned into a more sobering reality of funding issues, extreme technical challenges and the promise of lives yet to be lost to accident or sacrificed to the sheer time requirements involved in traversing this void to even our nearest neighbouring planets let alone to a possible life sustaining 'other' Earth light years away. As we are steadily running out of resources we are starting to question the need to invest vast amounts of energy into these programs. Can we really afford to keep this pace? At what cost? Can we afford not to? If we take into account the recent announcements by the scientific community that if we continue growing at the rate we currently are, as soon as 2030 Humanity will require 2 planets to support itself.

A tall unfinished copy of ARES 1 rocket launcher commissioned by NASA that would have seen the return of lunar exploration had it not been subsequently abandoned due to lack of funds stands alone in a darkened space. An abstracted play of light sourced from close-up shots of fireworks reminiscent of supernova cataclysms and birthing of stars creates the lighting for the launch tower in totality.

The fragile incomplete tower, placed on a black perspex reflecting its image like a dark mirror, is constructed out of thin sheets of soft balsa wood giving the appearance of balancing on the edge of collapse.

(excerpt from proposal, Mariana Jandova, 2011)

2011 'Home Outside the Perimeter' Exhibition at Platform, Melbourne (collaboration with Tony Cran)

Tree houses are places of longing and escape. Memories of childhood, counterculture movements and humanity's roots are evoked in an instant at the sight of them. These miniature worlds offer a post-apocalyptic vision of the plants we call weeds – those hardy and resilient pests of the plant kingdom - as stand in and replacement for trees becoming neo trees, a new home for the human primate.

Utilising the Platform window boxes visually in a similar manner to their original purpose, hovering on the edge of being at once a museum exhibit (a relic of the past) and an architectural model (a plan for the future); we  placed within them weeds we made out of artificial flowers occupied by model tree houses. To further enhance the sensation of the work, a photographic diorama was installed on the walls and the floor of the boxes depicting vacant lots and disused spaces throughout the city. 

If we hope to live in harmony with the natural world and not dominate it, we need to understand the drives of the culture we live in. To transform ourselves we need to look at the unwanted parts of our nature and our culture. To build a tree house in a weed is to embrace the overlooked, to be at ‘home’ with the unpredictable changes occurring in our physical and social landscape.

(excerpt from proposal, Mariana Jandova & Tony Cran, 2011)

2010 Projections Show at the Library Artspace, Melbourne

What is reality? Is it something that is set, continuous, regardless whether there is anyone to experience it, or does it only exist in our minds, is it something we create? Is our perception of the world correct to what is really happening? 

The touchstone of this body of work is the intertwining of personal memories with documented history.

The Projections consist of three wall projected images, old photographs from childhood over which I painted my own memory of the events, how I felt at that time.

The centrepiece image is created out of two merging landscapes, one Australian (country Victoria), the other European (Brno, Czech Republic, the town of my birth), both deeply familiar to me, loaded with significance.

I pose a question, is it the camera recording events faithfully as it happened or is the only true reality the one we experience though our eyes and in our hearts. 

(excerpt from proposal, Mariana Jandova, 2010)