Mark Porter/ Visual Artist: 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