Replication Machines, Territorial Markers, and Preliminary Drawings exhibition, New Orleans

The Front presents Replication Machines, Territorial Markers and Preliminary Drawings, an exhibition of recent works by Chicago based visual artist Mark Porter featuring kinetic sculptures and mixed media drawings. Through the fusion of found and custom-made objects, Porter creates mechanical prototypes, which mimic human and animal behavior as well as natural phenomenon. Emphasizing the quality of the hand made object, Porter’s sculptures serve as performative prototypes, which embrace experimentation and the relationship between inventor/invention, invention/user.

New Installation at Hyde Park Art Center

From the Hyde Park Art Center Blog:

On Friday, I helped artist Mark Porter complete an installation in the Artists Run Chicago exhibition space. The installation was his addition to My Turn, which is gallery mini dutch’s piece in the show. According to the exhibition label text,

My Turn is a site-specific, work in progress embodying mini dutch’s mission statement. Five artists who have previously shown at mini dutch were asked to participate. Each artist will take a turn installing artwork, and each “show” will be up for 8 days.

Rules:
1. The order of which the artists will participate will be randomly chosen
2. Each artist must keep at least 2 elements of all prior artists’ installation work
3. Each of the artists’ installation must be visible in the end process

The end goal is to show an evolving piece- much like how the shows usually change during their run at mini dutch. The focus is on collaboration and domination— there might be some irritation by the first participant because their contribution might be almost non-existents by the end. These artists were chosen not only because they all deal with “physical space,” but also because they don’t know each other. Therefore, they cannot plan what they are going to do and it ends up becoming reactionary to the artwork and to the previous installations.

Porter works in the mediums of kinetic sculpture and drawing. Today he added to the contributions already in place from Jessica Paulson, Matt Hanner and Vivien Park. His work will be added to by Stacie Johnson in a little over a week’s time. Playing off of his interpretation of the wall as a landscape, Porter added a houseplant that will be fed a mix of beneficial and detrimental liquids through a mechanical component. Porter explains the thought process behind the piece: “I’m reacting to what is the result of a collaboration by three artists that don’t know each other. Unknowingly, we all made a landscape together. I’m re-emphasizing that with my own process by linking a mechanical object to a piece of nature.” The piece is Porter’s interpretation of how manmade structures are imposing both with and against nature. Even strategies of development that seem environmentally friendly, such as green architecture, still have detrimental effects on the environment. As Porter says, “Inherently, no matter what we do, it’s destructive to nature.”

Artists Run Chicago remains on view until July 5.

My Turn before Porter’s contribution

After

Installation

Thank you for reading and be sure to join us tonight from 8 p.m. til midnight for Cocktails and Clay at HPAC!

Olfaction Exhibit

OLFACTION EXHIBITION

OLFACTION PRESENTS EIGHT PIECES OF VISUAL ART WHICH CONTAIN AN ELEMENT OR AN ALLUSION TO THE SENSE OF SMELL. ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE BY NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS TO SUBVERT THE DOMINANCE OF THE VISUAL SENSE WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF THE OLFACTORY. THE WORKS WILL EMIT SMELLS AMONGST OTHER ARTWORKS IN SMALL INTIMATE SPACES AT THE EMPTY SHOP GALLERY.

EMPTY SHOP, DURHAM

• http://www.emptyshop.org/

Internal/ External

Materials: Aluminum, steel, plastic, pigmented/ fragranced soap water, air pump, nylon tubing

Function: Expels a scented and colored soap mixture onto wall. A scented soap mixture is used for the mix. An aroma builds up which smells of artificial fragrance, which is similar, and also in contrast to the cold mechanical object which expels it. The object served as a demarcation machine. The soap mixture is expelled continuously slowly over an extended period of time. Soap bubbles form in the mixture. A thick sludge builds up on the wall and floor over a short period of time.

Internal/External is an exploration of several themes including communication and personal expression. The red liquid stored internally within the machine becomes external as it is expelled onto the surface of the gallery wall. During the process of expulsion, the red liquid becomes another form as it is converted into a lather or soapy sludge that fills the air with a synthetic floral scent. This process is a metaphor for an idea that comes to fruition and the difference between what it was and what it has become once it is externalized.

Absolut Arts Review

"Mark Porter: Interactive Sculptures, Lithographs and Drawings" 
2004-06-25 until 0000-00-00 
Ann Arbor Art Center 
Ann Arbor, MI, USA United States of America 

The Mark Porter exhibition at the Ann Arbor Art Center will open June 25 and run through July 25, 2004. The exhibition will feature kinetic, viewer interactive sculptures as well as related lithographs and drawings. The exhibition will be designed so that as the viewer moves through the exhibition space, movement will trip a motion sensor that activates each work of art. The sculptures will perform a function that mimics a unique type of human and/or animal behavior.

"Each piece is designed to approach the viewer with themes of human consciousness, human fragility, human sexuality and the desire to create and customize one's surroundings," Porter says. The lithographs and drawings will illustrate the idea and development of each piece.

Mark Porter received his MFA from the University of Michigan School of Art and Design with an emphasis on sculpture in 2002. He has won numerous grants and awards, and his work was added to the permanent collection of "Art and Technology" in 2001. Porter has participated in many group and solo shows. "They become aged, more worn as I and the viewers use them, building up a sense of history, just as any individual would," says Porter of his work.

Nurture/Alter Review

Fusing found objects and his own custom-made creations, Mark Porter produces one-of-a-kind pieces that gradually transform themselves — and the gallery — as the show progresses. The mechanical-drawings-turned-sculptures in Nurture/Alter mimic the irregularity of human actions and portray narratives through a series of projected images, videos, and fluid expulsions. Porter places his project blueprints next to the sculptures to aid in the understanding of their development, which continues free of his influence for the duration of the exhibition. Check out the show sooner than later, though, so you can observe the counterproductive movements of Porter's work before it slowly self-destructs.

– Morgan Phelps

Current Projects

Title: Projector, 2008

Materials: Steel, Aluminum, Plexi-glass, Video Projector, Security Camera, Air Pump

Function: Soapy pigmented fluid is pumped onto wall. A security camera captures the action and the live video is projected onto a wall with a video projector

Current Projects-

Two Improvisational Kinetic Installations

Artists Run Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, May 10- July 5, 2009

http://www.hydeparkart.org/exhibitions/2009/05/artists_run_chicago.php

Upcoming installation in the Whistler Storefront Gallery

http://whistlerchicago.com/storefront-gallery/

Future exhibit

Anton Art Center, MI, 2010

http://www.myspace.com/antonartcenter