Mark Samsworth: 2013

11 November 2013

Roman Ondák: Measuring the Universe

Roman Ondák. Measuring the Universe (2007), MoMA

As usual there was a long wait in the Ufficio Matricola, where prisoners go through all the ceremonies of admission and discharge. A man ahead of us, brought in by the American Counter-Intelligence Corps, was being fingerprinted, and one realised, even in such a small detail as this, how barbarous the system is, and how clear was the intention that the prisoner must be made to realise that everything civilised had been left behind. One of the office staff simply grabbed the man's hand, pressed the splayed-out fingers on to the inked pad, then on a form, then gestured to him to go and wipe his fingers on the wall.

Lewis, Norman. 1983. Naples '44. London. Eland. Page 81.

First published 1978, William Collins.

1 October 2013

Here For Your Life

Preview invitation card, oil paint

193x148mm

28 July 2013

The Situationists

Photographs: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jean Bourgeois, Bruno Barbey

And yet, how rare were the references to the great names of ideology – Marx, Lenin, Mao, even Che Guevara – on the walls of Paris. They would later appear on badges and T-shirts, as icons symbolizing the overthrow of systems. The student rebels reminded theorists of a long-forgotten Bakuninist anarchism, but if anything they were closest to the ‘situationists’, who had anticipated a ‘revolution of everyday life’ through the transformation of personal relations. That (and their Gallic brilliance at devising memorable slogans) is why they became the mouthpiece of an otherwise inchoate movement, although it is almost certain that hardly anyone until then had heard of them, outside a small circle of left-wing painters. (I certainly had not.)

Hobsbawm, Eric. (2002). Interesting Times, A Twentieth Century Life. London. Penguin Press. P.248.

6 July 2013

James Salter

The room had become confining for him, a regular closet. He stood up. He felt like a man who puts weight on a bad leg for the first time. Suddenly he was conscious of his position, uncomfortably. He was the leader. There seemed to be something artificial and repugnant about that, as if he were wearing a bright shirt with the word printed on it. Everything had been so effortless until now. Unexpectedly, the simplicity of things was gone. It had been a bad day.

When the ships returned from a mission, everybody watched for them. Usually, they came lining back to the field in flights of four, flying tight show formation with the black smoke fading in parallel streams behind as they turned in toward the runway and landing pattern. They seemed to be most indestructible then. They were of frozen silver. Nothing could possibly dim that grace. No enemy could deny them. Departures were stirring: but, every return, even the most uneventful, was somehow transcendent and a call to the heart to rise in joy. Out of the north they had come again, brief strokes of splendor.

Extracts from: Salter, James. (2007) The Hunters. London. Penguin. First published 1956.

F86 Sabre

11 May 2013

Spike Island Open

Artist, writer and curator Lucy Reynolds has been invited to select moving image works submitted by Spike Island studio holders and members of Spike Associates for this year’s Open Screening Area.

Mark Samsworth, Falling Through The Light: One Year Incidental (2013)

http://www.spikeisland.org.uk/blogs/2013/05/03/spike-island-open-screening-channel/

Falling Through The Light: One Year Incidental

Single channel video.

Colour, silent.

5’.32’’

MMXIII

Falling Through The Light: One Year Incidental is a silent film of observation. Shot over one year, the film includes elements filmed from screened broadcasts and documented diary footage. The footage is generally sequential, with editing kept to a minimal amount. The work is intended to allow for a comparison of incidental information, a geography of imagery, and for the viewer to witness this without an imposed soundtrack. Any sound is live with the viewer, the work acting as a distraction/attraction.