A desire to create and share something of beauty has led Christian into a career as a photographer, becoming known for a style rich in feeling and humanity, that has been described as silky and romantic, alive and vibrant. These artworks are an attempt to explore the emotive power of images via their abstraction.

BUT FOR NOW explores our emotional response to the landscape linking it to the human spirit, through the connection with loved ones

THE END OF ROMANTICISM questions our perspective, and belief in our own absolute truth. They remind us of our own internal filters we bring to our viewpoint.

LONGING SCAPES are colour field images referencing a quiet drama contained in the image, portraying a light beyond darkness, a release into something beyond. These images are all created without a lens. They hint at the mysterious, often unclear vision of our futures, often coloured by what we don't have.

SEASCAPES that aimed to abstract and denote a feeling rather than a place led to Christian being represented in New York by June Bateman Fine Art. These are featured in Hollywood movie sets, and grace walls from Manhattan, Europe to Sydney.

END+OF+ROMANTICISM — **end of romanticism**

BENEATH+THE+SURFACE — **beneath the surface**

YOUR+BEAUTIFUL+SOUL — **your beautiful soul**

SEDUCED+BY+THE+SEA — **seduced by the sea**

We all align to something higher than ourselves. There is a yearning for a greater good, more pure purpose, a more authentic connection. We all drive towards our nirvana, rant on social media trying to create our own world -order, proselytise to those who don’t think the way we do, and are ready to die to defend our point of view. Yet we all see the world the way we see it, and expect that everyone else should align, and we don’t want to believe there are other points of view. Sometimes we don’t even believe that someone else can see a different take on what we are both looking at. This work takes a subject as sublime as the sea’s horizon, with all it’s symbolism of purity, infinity, longing, anticipation, and portrays it via the filter of our own experience. We are made to see the romantic notion of the subject framed by reflections of our environment, what’s around us, and the impact of time in the view. Each moment presenting a different view.

Entitled 'breathe', this video is an observation of the human condition and our place in the universe. It looks at the sublime power of forces bigger than ourselves. Water and light being elemental and a metaphor for life and death. Hinting at the fragility, the ebb and flow, and the powerful beauty of what we are part of. Filmed at Curl Curl surf pool in Sydney at dawn, with some wild atmospheric sound recorded at The Bower rock pool on a calm day. Overlaid onto various points of the action are sounds created from helio-seismology. These are vibrations or oscillations on the sun's surface created by pulsation modes due to explosions on and in the sun, measured by doppler imaging. These are processed to speed up and transpose not the human hearing range and filter out different frequencies. I used several different processed versions for different effects.

- the ineffable euphoria you feel when you first fall in love With this project, I wanted to portray a feeling. To explore the transition between a physical object and a thought; a thing to an emotion. There's this strange chemistry that happens inside us when we are inspired. This is about depicting what happens when our muse visits, when we fall in love.

But for now I'll just say I love you Nothing more seems important somehow And tomorrow can wait come whatever Let me love you forever but right now Right now Lyrics by Bob Dorough Humans have an almost universal connection with nature. Immersed in it, we become grounded to a more basic force. Watching a night sky filled with stars or standing at the ocean gazing at the horizon can be moments of sublime enlightenment. Emotional responses to the landscape have long been romanticised as metaphors for the human spirit. Mushenko’s practice explores the landscape as visual poetry speaking to us in emotional terms. Images of the wild and the natural are familiar but at the same time evocative. Beyond pure recognition, we find in them a space to contemplate and be carried away. This body of work came out of Mushenko’s deep desire to connect with loved ones after some recent personal adversities. A longing born out of memories and dreams is portrayed in the solitude amongst the infinite natural world.

My work aims to prompt an enquiry of our own ‘truth’ and bias. Using the metaphor of a journey, as shown through a car’s windscreen, the viewer is led to question where they are going, and what their frame of reference is. Their point of view comes into question. Travelling through tunnels leads to introspection, a change of perspective, and a rebirth. By overlaying the underwater footage in the foreground of the main footage, and onto the audience themselves, I am aiming to put the viewer into the journey in a more personal way, and lead them to see the immersion of perspective as including them in the questioning. Inspired by a quote of James Turrell’s work by Rhys Graham (Lynn, Victoria, ‘Space Odysseys’) “Transitory moments between light and dark, reality and dream, between sight and blindness”, I wanted to create an immersive experience for an installation video project. Hence my theme is ‘immersion’. In it I explore our personal point of view, and how that may differ from someone else’s. We tend to think our ‘reality’ is everyones reality. Robert Anton Wilson discusses the concept that ‘with a subconscious set of filters formed from their beliefs and experiences, everyone interprets this same world differently, hence “truth is in the eye of the beholder”. Reality Tunnel, quotes by Robert Anton Wilson dedroidify.com/realitytunnel.htm dedroidify.com/raw.htm

Artist Bio and CV

Artist Bio

Lucky enough to grow up on an orchard in New England, Christian Mushenko had an affinity with the natural world, developing a sensitivity and appreciation of the environment around him.

"I think from an early age I was aware of 'moments'. I can still remember a sense of place and time on many occasions (or maybe they were the memories from family slide shows in the dark). The heat and haze of a summer afternoon in tall grass, the smell of autumn with crisp sun shining through leaves, or the quiet peace of a new blanket of snow".

Through film and a camera, he found a vehicle to illustrate this consciousness and wonder, and create expressions of beauty.

This desire to create and share something of beauty has extended into his career as a photographer, becoming known for a style rich in feeling and humanity, that has been described as silky and romantic, alive and vibrant.

In his abstract seascapes, Christian uses the elements of nature: light, sea and sky, to create painterly images with a dreamlike quality. The hues of dusk reflecting off an almost imaginary shore, or reflections off a seductive sea take on a poetic quality.

Having developed a body of fine art work based around lush abstract seascapes, people have responded finding a mirror for memories, and an invitation to wonder, to get lost and to dream. They are soulful works portraying a quiet sense of peace and romantic yearning. These seascapes have featured in Hollywood movie sets, and grace walls from Manhattan to Sydney. Christian is represented in New York by June Bateman Fine Art.

Mushenko has been predominantly Sydney-based, and works in photographic and video art forms. He has a Bachelor of Science Honours (Class 1) from Macquarie University, an Assoc. Diploma in Fine Arts from Sydney Institute (TAFE), and is currently completing a Masters of Art at UNSW Art & Design. In 2013, his body of work entitled Longing was exhibited in solo exhibitions in Fox Gallery, Prague and the Art House Hotel, Sydney. His work has been included in group shows in Sydney, New York, Miami and Brazil.

He has been awarded 1st Place Outstanding Achievement in Fine Art, 7th Annual Photography Masters Cup in 2014; Gold Lotus Award Adfest in 2009; and Peoples Choice winner in the 2007 HeadOn Alternative Portrait Competition. His work is held in private collections in the USA, UK and Australia.

Artist CV

EDUCATION
2017 Master of Art UNSW Art & Design, Sydney
2016=17 Directing I and II, part of MPS DIrecting, School of Visual Arts, NY
1992 Associate Diploma of Fine Art, Sydney Inst. of Technology, TAFE NSW
1985 Bachelor of Science, Hons (1st), Macquarie University, Sydney

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2013 Longing, Fox Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
Longing, Art House Hotel, Sydney
2007 New York Stories, Studio 68, Sydney

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 ADDON, HEAD ON, Ambush Gallery, Chippendale, Sydney
2015 ADDON, HEAD ON, Depot I Gallery, Sydney
SCOPE ART FAIR, Miami
2014 ADDON, HEAD ON, Depot I Gallery, Sydney
SeeMe Takeover Times Square, New York
2013 ADDON, HEAD ON, Depot II Gallery, Sydney
2012 ADDON, HEAD ON, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
2011 ADDON, HEAD ON, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
Captured, Sydney Town Hall, Sydney
Sydney Art Show, Convention & Exhibition Centre, Sydney
2009 Canon Reflexion 50 years of EOS, Overseas Passenger Terminal, Sydney
2008 HeadOn Portrait Prize, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
2007 HeadOn Portrait Prize, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
2006 Masters of Photography International Charity Exhibition, Curitiba, Brazil

SELECTED JOINT EXHIBITIONS
2009 Affinity Charles Hewitt Gallery, Sydney
2007 Soul Bathers Gallery, Sydney
2005 Seduced By the Sea Bathers Gallery, Sydney

SELECTED AWARDS
2015 International Color Awards, People Category, 2nd Place
2014 International Color Awards, Fine Art Category, 1st Place
2009 Adfest, Outdoor Poster Category, Gold Lotus Award
2008 Cannes Lion, Bronze Lion
2007 Head On Alternative Portrait Competition, Peoples Choice winner, Sydney
2006 International Color Awards, Photography Masters Cup, Honour of Distinction
1992 Sydney Institute Graduating Class in Photography, Awarded top portfolio

COLLECTIONS
Private collections in Australia, Great Britain, USA

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2013 Desktop Magazine, “LONG LIGHT” Profile, Review of Longing exhibition, http://www.christianmushenko.com/blog/2014/02/25/longing-beams-through-the-pages-of-desktop-magazine