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This is a lithographic edition of a type of mask used by performers in Mellors' film The Time Surgeon, 2007. The Time Surgeon is a new film-installation in which the central character inflicts physical torture upon a tape machine to induce time travel. Mellors' ad-hoc sculpture, psychedelic theatre and absurdist, satirical film target the question of who controls language.

Biography
Nathaniel Mellors (b. 1974 in Doncaster) lives and works in Amsterdam and London. He studied at the Ruskin School, Oxford 1996-1999 and graduated from the Royal College of Art, London in 2001. He is currently resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. In addition to his work as a visual artist Mellors plays bass in the group Skill 7 Stamina 12 and co-runs Junior Aspirin Records. Nathaniel Mellors’ ad-hoc sculpture, psychedelic theatre and absurdist, satirical films target the question of who controls language. The Time Surgeon, a new film installation co-commissioned by ArtSway and the Biennale d'Art Contemporain de Lyon 2007 is an absurdist film (partly inspired by Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Marker's La Jettee), in which the central character's verbal descriptions of torture, in combination with the fast-forward and rewind buttons on his Sony portable, are enough to send his tape-bound 'Victim' shuttling forwards and backwards in time. 'Victim' is steered through significant historical events, visiting 1960's New York and Renaissance France as well as Jesus' crucifixion at Golgotha – arriving inside the body of Christ by mistake, causing the abortion of Christ's conjoined 'sensible twin', before finally meeting GOD – who requests the end of the art-work. B.OK - a full colour catalogue including texts by David Evans, Jennifer Higgie and Martin Herbert is published by The Arts Institute at Bournemouth and accompanies The Time Surgeon. Recent solo exhibitions include Hateball, Alison Jacques Gallery, London (2006) and Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2005), The Pink Mist, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2005) and Profondo Viola, Matt's Gallery, London (2004). Recent group exhibitions include Virtually Grizedale at the Liverpool Biennial (2006), Tokyo Ikebukuro International Art Festival (2006) and Romantic Detachment, PS1, New York (2004). Mellors’ work features in the forthcoming publications: The Artist’s Joke, The Whitechapel Gallery & The MIT Press, Documents of Contemporary Art, Edited by Jennifer Higgie. Loudspeaker: Book Works vs. White Columns (An Anthology of Spoken Word Projects) curated by Mark Beasley and Matthew Higgs. Nathaniel Mellors is represented by Alison Jacques Gallery, London and Matt’s Gallery, London.

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