MARK HOSKING Disconnected Exhibtion: 15/09/2006 -
31/10/2006 The human body defines our ergonomic
relationship to the things that surround us, from the teacup to the armchair. The art of Mark Hosking has always emphasised
the obstacles and impediments of life with an inventive survivalist mentality.
He works as if the decaying infrastructure of our society had finally
collapsed, demanding that we make new uses for the things around us,
bastardising their normal functions, distorting things into perverse new forms. Here we bump, both mentally and physically into
the metaphors of our daily routines, as if in a different universe the
functions of domestic forms have been corrupted and distorted, as if they had
developed in some weird Darwinian technological isolation of their own. Now
morphed with new intentions the objects in Hosking-world mutate; lamp bulbs
turn into oil lamps and air-bags into grow-bags. The schoolboy and the explorer know that humans
are approximately 75% water, and without hydration the functions of the human
body start to collapse within 3 days. When we drink we know that our valuable
dose of H2O has possibly already passed through 5 or 6 bodies like an elemental
stream connecting us back to nature. Hosking parodies our relationship to our
most important building block by constructing a water-body-purifier; ‘Ascension Filter’. The weight and
gravity of the aggregate filled hanging shirts become bodies for cleansing
bodies, like a huge human kidney filtering unwanted sediment, although the muck
left inside these bodies, possibly defines the artworks own mortality. This work
echo’s the levitation of figures in baroque art, like the ceiling of an Annibal
Carracci fresco with the bodies falling out of the picture space. The composition reforms and distils, not
just to entertain the choreography of the human image but also to replenish it.
In a world of conflict and energy crisis,
Hosking delivers a warming positive irony that it could all be ok, as long as
we look at and value the things around us with the importance they deserve. Tim Stoner 2006 Mark Hosking (1971 born in
Plymouth, GB) lives and works in London and Amsterdam. Selection of solo
shows: “Disconnected”, VRIZA, Amsterdam (2006), “Net Gain Loss“, Engholm Engelhorn
Galerie, Wien (2004), Lisson Gallery, London (2004), ARTLAB 18, Imperial College,
London (2002), Jerwood Gallery, London (2001) Selection of group shows: “Inhabituel”, Fabbrica del
Vapore Milan (2005), “The Square Show”, Bloomberg Space, London (2003), “The
Gap Show. Young
critical art from Great Britain”, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund (2002), “Gymnasion “, Bregenzer Kunstverein, Bregenz (2001) “City Racing - A partial account“, I.C.A., London (2001). . |
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