The search, and hunger, for a “wonderland” drives us to forever press on for beauty — to build grander worlds and create alternate realities that will allow us to transcend the bounds of our humanity. Wonderland is a thing forever eschewing graspability, but always riding ahead of us – keeping us moving forward in hopes of reaching ultimate bliss. Indeed, it is this search for wonderland that powers New York-via-Israel artist Ohad Maiman’s newest body of work quixotically entitled “2 Klicks South of Wonderland/Snow White and the Teddy Bear Killers.” Depicting a romantic and hazy liminal world where teddy bears, cartoon characters, and fairy tale humans coexist in the same frame, the work materializes the tensions (and all-out wars) between the real and the chimerical in our imaginations. The photographic prints, which are mounted on wooden boxes and covered with epoxy resin, are vivid and imaginative in their juxtapositions — giving philosophical weightiness to childlike visions. OAKAZINE visited Maiman in his Soho studio — a mystical magician’s lair meets British gentleman’s parlor — and watched as he worked on some of his pieces. “2 Klicks South of Wonderland/Snow White and the Teddy Bear Killers” is currently showing at Stephen Webster in LA and will later be showing at Richard Young Gallery in London and Clic Gallery in New York. Interview after the jump.
