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including the playfulness and memories from my childhood, hostile social-political environments or the expression of
time through the accumulation of objects or marks and streaks. I'm an artist who creates artwork using a variety of
styles and materials including sculptures, paintings, videos, photography, drawings and installation art.
I've been saving old lotto tickets for the last couple of years. I created a quilt out of them to represent the
accumulation of lost hope and despair. Hand sewing is also a very personal and time consuming experience. The
quilt took 30 hours to make.
The disintegrating face paintings is a style I developed in 1989. I started washing away the lines in faces on large
format canvas. The process was such that i didn't get a chance to create many of these because there was too
much of a mess. Not until recently have I had the opportunity to create more. I threw buckets of water on the
canvas, dissolving some of the paint. The paint streaks reminded me of subway tunnel walls or concrete walls in the
city where time has created water marks as the surfaces weather. Like these walls, we are records of time,
accumulating stains and streaks in our souls.
The Whirl Project was initiated in 1997 at the invitation of two artists; David o David and Cocoleeta to be in a group
show in Toronto called "The Drug Show". There were approximately 40 artists and each of them were to create work
relating to drugs. For my sculpture, I chose to re-create a round-about from a playground. I attached a motor and
gear box so it spun at 45 rpm. In the inner-city, a playground is no longer just a place where children play, it is also a
place where dealers sell drugs. The Whirl Project also suggests that drugs may be fun but they are dangerous. The
fast spinning disk would surely have injured anyone who wanted to ride it. When investigating the symbol of a whirl I
found that it also references spiritual awareness and power. The scared four directions and the power of the spiral
where all in my mind when I created the sculpture and companion drawings. The Whirl Project's crazy spiral had a
hypnotic effect on the viewer as it revolved.
The Hammer Swinger Project was installation art I created to make fun of those who persecute people because they
are different. I quoted the ridiculous rantings of Malefica Maleorum or "The Hammer of the Witches". This was the
doctrine from the middle ages used by the Catholic Church to persecute and execute countless innocent people who
were believed to practice witchcraft. It was the original witch hunt. The sculpture was shown at York University in
Toronto, Canada.
The Made In Canada Project had a lot of issues in it. The Made In Canada Project was exhibited at York University in
Toronto, Canada. With this installation art I used wholly recycled materials. The wood came from a scrap bin. It was
mostly the kind of pine boards used on construction sites. The leaves were recycled from the sandpaper I used to
sand the bed. For me the piece conveys a feeling of craftsmanship, using materials that the average construction
worker might use. I also wanted to create an initial feeling of comfort while using hard or coarse materials that
suggest the opposite. The bed was only big enough for a child. I think it was meant for me at 10 years old. The
Made In Canada Project was about how Canada created a product - me - Mark Holden.
With the Stuffed Animals Project I was questioning the nurturing we receive from our environment. As people litter,
their discarded remains become a form of free advertising. I wanted to remind the viewer of childhood, a time when
we were all easily and sometimes negatively influenced. The sculptures were shown in a group as installation art in
Montreal and Toronto, Canada.
The paintings from 1999 are from a series of images of friends from the past that I'm no longer in touch with. I have
started developing an ice-creamy-cartoony sort of painting style. Faces have always fascinated me from the time I
was 2 years old when I was drawing monster heads. This is a series of paintings I'm still developing. These paintings
were in a group show called "Personal Grounds" in Toronto, Canada.
Like I said above, I've been drawing since I was very young. So much can be conveyed by the slightest facial
expressions. I try to convey an emotion using the least amount of lines in the picture. In the past, I've exhibited
drawings at The West Wing Gallery in Toronto, Canada and The AMS Gallery at the University of British Colombia in
Vancouver.
I loved Sam Taylor Wood's photographs of famous crying men. They reminded me of the hostile environment of the
adult world.
The plastic bed installation was a neurotic piece I did about working with no sleep.
The Zoo installation was almost 2 pieces. The first part of the show was when I bricked up the door so no one could
get in or out of the only public door to the gallery. The second part was when i filled the gallery with duck and goose
down feathers. It looked like a large bird was being kept inside a pen, so I called it "Zoo". There were 2 large picture
windows looking into the gallery from the hall. I also had fans blowing the feathers around the room. It also reminded
me of one of those things you shake up with the snow inside.
In the spring of 1997, I did a series in oil of mostly black cars. It was just about the hustle and bustle of city life. The
rat race we're all forced to live in. I chose a playful, almost childlike painting style, almost as if I was playing with the
images like a child plays with toy cars or building blocks. Or like God plays with our lives like toys and we're just all
trying to get ahead.
"Wedding" was an installation I created with Elizabeth Fearon. We bonded by burning our hands together. It was our
first marriage. Later we were married legally. The 24 boxes were made out of latex that looked like skin. We burned
each corner like we burnt our hands. The opening of the installation was in darkness with each box illuminated. We
slowly let the lights burn out, and by the end of the opening it was dark. It was about an intense experience that
leaves a scar. We were 24 years old at the time of the installation, hence 24 boxes.
In 1991 I experimented with large format charcoal drawings of figures. I loved smearing the charcoal and creating
whip marks or wounds on the picture plane. The whip marks and smears sometimes suggest movement and
sometimes static. I didn't have models so i used figures from fashion magazines. There seems to be a feeling of
mockery of the models with the whip like lines..or torture of the image.
-Mark Holden, October 2006
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