Bad Music Seminar, 1999. This video
preceded the lecture, "On Aspects of the Avant-garde." A
second Harris video, Flies, 2003, played in the background
during the lecture. Richard Roth introduces Mark Harris below.
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Mark Harris is a
visiting associate professor in the departments of sculpture, and
painting and printmaking. He's actually, I believe, the first
person who we call a joint appointment, someone appointed for two
different departments in the university. So we're really pleased
to have lured him away from the school where he is usually working
in Loughborough, UK, where he's also the chair, or they call it
the program leader—we call it the chair—of painting
and printmaking at the University of Loughborough.
Mark Harris's extensive exhibition record includes
solo exhibitions at the Trans Hudson Gallery in New York City and
group exhibitions at the Tate Modern and at 1 000 000 mph, and
that's a gallery in London, I hope I got that right.
Mark is also a critic writing for the journal Art
Monthly, among other publications, and he is currently completing
a PhD in philosophy at Goldsmiths College in London. Mark has
curated and co-curated a number of significant group exhibitions: Dumbfounded,
at the Battersea Art Center in London; Educating Barbie,
at Trans Hudson Gallery in New York; and Material Abuse,
also at Trans Hudson.
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Mark's art often
seems to embody opposites, such as the ability to appear casually
tossed off and intellectually rigorous at once. His body of work
consists of complex paintings that are both sculptural
and dematerialized, audio and video work, and text pieces,
all with
a decidedly conceptual orientation. One might think that an
artist concerned with art history and philosophy as erudite as
Mark
Harris would be somewhat removed from worldly concerns. But I
am delighted
to report that Mark has a wide range of interests informing
his art that include an enthusiasm for and expertise in youth culture,
world
music, and digital technology.
Please join me in welcoming Mark
Harris.
—Richard
Roth
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