Artistic duo Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick have a specialty matched by few contemporary artists. They create worlds — historical yet relevant, real yet fantastical — and document those worlds through staged photography, installation, and found objects. This is intellectual art at its best.

Kahn and Selesnick’s most recent creation, Eisbergfreistadt, is on view at Irvine Contemporary until December 8, and tells the story of the post-World War I Baltic port town of Lubeck, which was struck by a monumental iceberg in 1923. Townspeople imagined the eventual flooding, thought it was a sign of the apocalypse, and created Eisbergfreistadt, an “Iceberg Free State.” The exhibit mixes true historical artifacts, such as the historical notgeld currency purchased by Kahn and Selesnick on eBay, with artistic renderings, masterfully staged photographs and installations.

Much of the work on display features the notgeld, which was given to German and Austrian citizens by local banks after World War I, and became practically useless due to rising inflation after the war. In Cardgame (pictured above, detail), three men play cards in the center of the 72 inch long photograph, surrounded by wooden crates, torn suitcases, boots and hats, all overflowing with countless bundles of notgeld. Dressed in long coats and fur, and wearing stone-carved masks depicting unknown animals, the men sit on crates amidst an ominous icy landscape.