I am exhibiting my first Italian solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Villa Croce, Genoa.
Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce
28-01 – 13-03-22
Curated by Valeria Ceregini
Towards Super-Connection is a mobile and modular installation and exists in a significant relationship with the place of its manifestation. It derives from a concept of quantum theory in which the quantum state of a particle is related to that of every other particle in that particular system. Towards Super-Connection explores through the site-specific installation, and both the featured drawings on paper and the lightbox, a dystopian present where nature sublimates itself to the needs of a system of structures and constructive forms: a changing system where the model exists as a code inherent in its parts. In the end, it is clear how Mark Cullen’s research is recurrent the spatial survey, and the representation of primigenial figures that are also evident in his site-specific installations – they seem like a 3D representation of these generative natural elements which are at the base of the Universe itself.
The exhibition features a modular installation of rods and geometric intersections derived from Buckminster Fuller’s geodetic design concepts. The structure composed of bamboo strips is susceptible to a conservation process where each element is carefully hand-laminated in PVC tape, followed by aluminium tape to give an aspect both futuristic and vernacular. This process perfectly follows the protection and conservation process of satellite components coated with a gold or aluminium film to protect them from cosmic radiation. This procedure represents for the artist both a meticulous meditative process and a gesture towards the safeguarding of a natural material such as bamboo by completely subsuming its essence: exploiting its form for a new esoteric purpose – that of making art.
Text by Valeria Ceregini
https://valeriaceregini.com
Featured image: Mark Cullen, Towards Super-Connections, 2020. Modular sculptural system: bamboo, aluminium, hydro pipe, steel fixings, dimensions variable, installed at Portrane, Fingal, Co. Dublin.
The exhibition is generously supported by Culture Ireland, the Irish Embassy and The Arts Council of Ireland, and kindly hosted by the Museums of Genoa – Villa Croce and the Municipality of Genoa.
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and have been selected for the upcoming Tactical Magic at TULCA in Galway by curator Kerry Guinan.
1 -17 November 2019
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Marshallhúsið, Grandagarður 20
101 Reykjavík
Iceland
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DE XI – ALTERN-ATOR
HDLU,
Mestrovic Pavilion
Trg žrtava fašizma 16, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia
OPENING 2OTH APRIL
The accompanying catalogue features the Difference Engine ANNEX in print format.
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Artist-Run Europe: Practice/Projects/Spaces receives a Silver Bell at the 2017 ICAD Awards.
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Artist-Run Europe: Practice/Projects/Spaces
The publication that I have been working with Gavin Murphy and the Pallas team over the last few years is now on sale at bookshops across the world.
Artist-Run Europe: Practice/Projects/Spaces
Edited by Gavin Murphy & Mark Cullen
Published by Onomatopee, Eindhoven
Designed by WorkGroup, Dublin
208 pages, Swiss bound, Full colour
Contributors: Jason E. Bowman, AA Bronson, Noelle Collins, Valerie Connor, Mark Cullen, Céline Kopp & Alun Williams, Joanna Laws, Freek Lomme, Megs Morley, Gavin Murphy, Gavin Wade and Katherine Waugh.
With case studies of spaces and projects: Triangle France, Transmission Gallery, Pallas Projects/Studios, Eastside Projects, Catalyst Arts, Pink Cube, Secession, Dienstgebaeude, Supermarket, FOOTFALL, and The Artist-led Archive.
Pallas Projects/Studios first opened its doors on Dublin’s Foley Street in May 1996 and to coincide with our 20th anniversary is a new publication Artist-Run Europe – a major survey and analysis of artist-run practice in cooperation with spaces from all over Ireland and Europe. The groundbreaking study is based on over 4 years of research, it features illustrated case studies looking at different organisational models of spaces, newly commissioned essays, and a detailed index of over 500 European artist-run spaces. The book is thoughtfully designed by Dublin studio WorkGroup and printed and bound to a very high standard in The Netherlands.
The book features an index of artist-run spaces throughout Europe with almost 600 spaces listed from 36 European countries.
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Daily Practice: Selected Works 2007 – 2008
The Molesworth Gallery, Dublin
20/10/2016 – 2/11/2016
Spanning a period of ten years, the works in Daily Practice juxtapose scientific instruments of perception, such as observatories, neutrino detectors and the CERN hadron collider with the conventions of mandalas as subjective tools for understanding the universe. (A mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in eastern religions, representing the universe. In common use, “mandala” has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically).
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I am happy to report that Gibbons & Nicholas are bringing my work along with a number of
Irish based artists to Context, Art Fair, New York.
Mark Cullen 