See the Mark Wallinger Mark exhibition in Scotland
For the first time, the Turner Prize winner takes his works to Dundee Contemporary Arts and the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh
The work of Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger will be shown in Scotland for the first time as a two-part exhibition: one at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh and one at Dundee Contemporary Arts.
The displays, running simultaneously from 4 March until 4 June, focus on his most recent project, id Paintings, an exploration of how the concept of self and personal identity is expressed in our modern society. Born out of his series of self-portraits, the 66 paintings take the artist's own body as an initial starting point, with his height and arm span informing the canvas size. He then created the works by sweeping paint-laden hands across the canvas, recalling Rorschach tests. Viewers are invited to project their own thoughts and feelings onto the artwork, as well as guessing the motivations of the artist himself.
In each of the two cities, the series will be accompanied by an assortment of sculptures, films, paintings and other multimedia works further exploring similar themes of identity, perception and reflection. In Edinburgh, Wallinger's interpretation of the letter "I" is expressed in two distinct ways: the first in the found poem Adam, which presents an index of the first lines of poems that start with the letter "I" in Palgrave's Golden Treasury; the second in an expressive wall of his Self Portraits, each depicting the letter "I", the word we all use for ourselves. Elsewhere, an installation piece entitled According to Mark features 100 empty chairs bearing the name "Mark", tied together with strings connecting to a central point to the wall towards which they face.
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In Dundee, 12 of the id Paintings surround the new work Self (Symbol), which sees the form of the letter "I" interpreted into a three-dimensional statue the height of the artist. Showcasing his wide use of different media, the exhibition will also feature several pieces of film work. Construction Site follows three builders on a beach as they construct a tower perfectly aligned to the horizon, only to disassemble it, while In Ever Since displays a similar sense of repetition showing an animated barber's pole that appears to spiral upwards for eternity. There will also be a new four-screen video titled Orrery, portraying an oak tree situated in the middle of a roundabout in Essex as it passes through the four seasons.
Mark Wallinger Mark is at Dundee Contemporary Arts and the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, from 4 March to 4 June 2017; dca.org.uk; fruitmarket.co.uk
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