exhibit reviews:
Reconciling America, SFAC
San Francisco, CA
by Tonya Warner
Mark Titchner, BALTIC
Gateshead, England
by Rea Cris
Amidst the Ruins, Mission 17
San Francisco, CA
by Tonya Warner
Mark Titchner: Run, Black River, Run
BALTIC
Gateshead, England
28 January - 27 April 2008
by Rea Cris
Of all artists who use a criticism of advertising and the mass media as their chosen subject matter, Mark Titchner is the most sincere and clinical. Other artists who have broached the subject have done so in a humorous and conspiratorial manner, effectively biting the hand that feeds them. Titcher, in contrast, seems genuinely baffled and approaches the subject with a scientific technique of trial and error to undercover the 'secret'. Copying its vocabulary but adjusting the visual imagery, Titchner's work tries to understand the meaning behind the slogans and self-esteem boosting catchphrases, only to discover they are empty. 'Run, Black River, Run' is an "Orwellian boulevard" with banners announcing BE REAL, WHAT WE DO - WE DO WELL, IF IT IS TO BE - IT IS UP TO ME. Titchner says: "Nowhere within them [the slogans] do they contain any real information about what they might really mean, let alone how they might actually be ideas that would be implemented in the world. After all, we would all like to 'Be Real' but what does that actually mean? What the emptiness in these slogans reveals is in fact that the emptiness is in us all".
Walking past the banners, the slogans seem familiar as if we've read them before, but we can't place where. The exhibition climaxes at the alter-like video installation 'The Eye Don't See Itself', which depicts a kaleidoscopic eye symmetrical sliced by an obelisk. More slogans are chanted out, intoxicating and hypnotizing you; "If you can dream it you can do it". It demonstrates the slippery divide between religious pursuit of 'acceptable' hedonism and complete anarchy where a serial killer can dream of murder and "can do it".
The Obelisk originally symbolized the sun god Ra in ancient Egypt and the structure was revered as a religious symbol. It would be carved with hieroglyphs, depicting a story or message. The Washington Monument, in Washington DC (which Titchner refers to directly) is a strangely empty obelisk, devoid of any message or story. It is perhaps symbolic of the country that most consider to be the birthplace of modern advertising techniques.
All quotes from on-site information leaflet.
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