Opening Reception: Saturday November 1, 2008 6pm-8pm

Taylor De Cordoba is pleased to present The Searchers, the West coast debut of a new series of photographs by the collaborative team of Sasha Bezzubov and Jessica Sucher. The exhibition will run from November 1 – December 20, 2008. The gallery will host an opening reception for the artists on Saturday, November 1 from 6pm-8pm.

The Searchers is a series of large-scale photographs examining Western spiritual tourism in India. Bezzubov and Sucher investigate the magnetic pull of India’s rich religious history and the utopian communities that cater to Western seekers. While exploring yoga centers, meditation retreats and ashrams, the artists straddle the line between observers and participants. The project results in distinct groupings: spatially astounding interiors, bizarre landscapes, and portraits of those who simultaneously appear both lost and found. The connecting thread is the visual strangeness and cultural collisions inherent in this phenomenon. This series includes photographs taken at the Osho Meditation Resort in Pune and the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram in Nayyar Dam, Kerala.

With The Searchers, the artists build on themes explored in their previous bodies of work, specifically Expats and Natives (Bezzubov and Sucher) and The Gringo Project (Bezzubov). These previous projects center around young Western travelers exploring developing countries and how the relationship to one’s host country relates to larger issues of race, class, and identity.

New York-based Sasha Bezzubov and Jessica Sucher have been collaborating since 2002. In 2006, they spent a year in India on a Fulbright Scholarship Award for their project, The Searchers. Their work has previously been exhibited in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, The Netherlands.