Artists Statements



2007 - 2010

 

Diary Excerpt

Place: Chelsea Studio

Date: Sunday - 01.17.10 - Time: 02:47:20 pm


Event: Thinking about the Timpani

 

My first classical concert, I was greatly impressed by the Timpani, the kettle drums in the orchestra. The rhythm, the vast resonance, the shape, the action of the musician striking the stretched surface all fascinated me.

Recently, I was reminded of this when viewing film and digital media that have been made of me at work this past year . The microphone picked up the intimate sounds of my instruments - brushes, pencils and geometric objects, touching the substrate. Experiencing these as playback I realized that they have several facets - reflecting the sounds i of the city and my own steps where my narrative is formed as I walk and observe, refreshing the impact and emotion within me that was so struck by the drums years ago, answering in counterpoint the sound I hear around me in the studio, and joining with those sounds in driving forward the next phases of the work in progress.

If the action of making the mark creates a sound, isn't that mark in a sense a score of that sound, something that can be recognized by the viewer as expressing music, even re-interpreted by an instrumentalist? This notion has been reinforced by the response the my work currently on view at Danese...

In fact, it has also been the subject of an approach that I have been experimenting with in collaboration with the flutist, Yukari, with whom I have worked in public performance before, toward an integrated approach to creating auditory and visual art. At the studio, we staged session during which she improvised on the flute while I marked in dry media on large sheets of paper - as I heard and responded, she played her response to what I set on the sheet - each of us composing and conducting. Most interesting is that this was not a performance for an audience, and the end product beyond digital documentation of the surface and sound was 2 independent sets of quality works - hers as audio recordings and mine as major drawings, all created within the span of one afternoon.

This work begins another level under the umbrella of my continuing "Cross Narrative Series," named for the the varying threads of sight, sound thought and feeling that infuse my subject matter and are manifest in the work as gestures, lines and geometric forms, in arrangements either symmetrical or "random." Adding consciousness of the dimension of sound is the current phase of this exploration of my mark-making as a visual representation of life.


Crossed Narratives (Blacks) #1, 2009
gouache on paper
15-1/2 x 12 inches

Now Can be viewed at Danese

535 West 24th Street
New York, NY, 10011

Works on Paper

January 8 - February 6, 2010

 

 

g

crossed narratives book

acrylic and sumi ink on paper


"Crossing Narratives" / "Crossed Narratives"

Millions of feet mark the city streets every day. People, likely unaware of their actions, re-paint and re-surface the landscape with every step. They walk into unhardened tar, wet painted lines, dropped papers and the spray-paint diagrams of the repair crews, layering the street with marks. Combined with natural erosion, these marks comprise an endless mural laid upon the urban landscape.

Responding to this as a reporter, I create the works I call "Crossing Narratives," a series of observations of this multi-layered, multifaceted translucent urban landscape.

Working with graphite, ink paint and wax, my images evolve. First, gestural marks set the guide and surface of the work. Second, the pours, drips and thrown paint layered translucently
talking to spontaneity. Finally crossing the narrative, a combined formality of imperfect grids and symmetrical objects acting as marks, the surface layered
like the city streets, color and texture, order and disorder, in tandem. Point/counter-point/point.

January 2009 (this for statement was created for the exhibition, Crossing Narratives")





"Watching nature
" Date: 09.25.08 - Time: 12:00:59 pm

 

 

“My diary speaks to heart of the matter, my creation... it is my reflection in the moment in between all the moments of my creation.”

Place: Sitting by my studio door
Date: 10.03..07 - Time: 01:35 pm
Event: Contemplating grids


For some time now I have been creating .... Diptychs, Triptychs in as many configurations as possible.
Exploring parallel structures, push and pull, gestures & strokes. The grids as marks have opened the opportunity to expand upon that in multiples, and find out more about “why and how”. I need the structure of multiples against multiples.

 

 

Mark Wiener - Studio Interview - December 2008

by RogeSmithLife.com and Panman Productions

 

Place: Studio
Date: 03.9.08 - Time: 9:35 pm
Event: Working aganst a lost hour.


My subconcious never ceases to amaze me. Some 15yrs ago I worked with a young programmer who was forced to recreate my designs by rewriting them in computer Code. I watched him break down each
graphic to numeric positions on the desktop. Then the two of us picked color values for those numbers and he mapped them to my design. I was always facinated by his capibilty to abstract my forms into numbers. This idea, hidden somewhere in my subconcious, has been a major influence in my latest work.

Place: in the rain again
Date: 08.10.07 - Time: 3:05 pm
Event: enjoying the rain and taking pictures.


These photographs were taken on the studio deck during a storm today - the marks of paint fell outside the canvas when I was working yesterday. More and more I am becoming aware of marks outside my canvas.

Place: A Museum
Date: 04.6.08 - Time: 12:35 pm
Event: Waiting for somebody

A neighbor bumped into me this afternoon at the Metropolitian Museum of Art. He said to me,
"it looks like you are waiting for somebody"
my answer was 'for myself" and he parted.

 

 




"being watched
" Date: 07.07.07 - Time: 11:00:00 pm

 

Place: 79th street
Date: 09.10.08 - Time: 2:44:48 pm
Event:
thinking about my primary
shapes, & relationships.

Where did I find my first primary shapes?

As a photojournalist during demonstrations in the late 60's -

early 70's there were many times that I found shelter lying on

the ground, fending off the assaults of the police. The motor drive just

ran, the un-focused camera capturing the shapes of both the police and

the demonstrators...

 

Place: In my head
Date: 01.26.07 Time: 6:49 pm
Event: Looking inside and out


There are days that we take the time to look inside and out . To explore those alpha moments. The past few monents(paintings) have been a clearing of my thoughts. Though I am still asking what it means to look inside and out.

 

Place: Park Avenue Armory
Date: 05.08.08 - Time: 07:26 pm
Event: Rembering a good friend


Walking through the Findlay Booth, a friendly gentlemen introduced himself as David Findlay. I wondered if this would be the Mr. Findlay whose gallery was so important to me as a child walking 57th st. He walked away after introducing himself, still curious I approaced him. Asking if he knew a gentlmen by the name of Dick Widel. He looked at me, paused and with a very sincere smile said "yes, he was such a wonderful man". I proceeded to tell him my favorite story of being a young artist and Dick Widel..


View from a camera that was mounted to my hand as I worked - 2006

 

 

Place: Walking on Park Avenue
Date: 07.03.08 - Time: 01:29 pm
Event: Walking and thinking of what to say.

Thoughts have been bouncing around, what am I actually creating?

What has this work of the past year brought me? The past year this has brought me the attention of those who like to think, who understand the idea of looking for the edge...

How has my life experience changed over this past year of working only in black and white? This is all about communicating a different way, eliminating color, the filtering of distractions, minimalizing the surface so as to look closer at what has always been taken for granted, what lies in the shadows. Therefore seeing again.

 

 


"the oher side" Date: 03.08.06 - Time: 11:11:36 pm

 

to view the complete diary

 

To view additional works by a studio visit

or a more comprehensive

web catalog

You may make all requests by email - mwienerarts@gmail.com


The Studio is located on Park Avenue and 79th Street

For Acquisition inquires