Installation view of Platform: 2020, presented by Edinburgh Art Festival at City Art Centre. Edited images from original photographs by Tom Nolan.
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Jeopardies?
HD Video (Vertical format)
13 mins
>>.
Mark Bleakley
Platform: 2020, Edinburgh Art Festival.
City Art Centre, Edinburgh.
About:
This work is the continued exploration of the dialogue between collective experience and weight (and/or gravity): how is this used in, with or against singular and collective bodies? Within the currently crisis I focused on sensations shared through collective action/experience, that Could be explored in isolation. For Platform I presented 3 works; Giving Weight a playful document of a movement and print workshop exploring sensations fo Grounding, groundlessness and inertia. The grounding exercise of printing with body weight is continued to be explored in Ground Up (40’000 gsm) : inspired by the physical weight given to a cause in acts of protest and occupation, I created this reworking of a typographic print “DEADWEIGHT” based on Deutsche Gothic fonts, using my own bodyweight to print the mass of paper. 40’000 gsm refers to the total spread of bodyweight used in the printing; alluding to the potential and power of collective weight/efforts. what remains of the collective body after the event? What is atomised? The final work Jeopardies? explores the three sensations asking What has got a hold of you? socially, politically and emotionally in the form of a corrupted TV game show format. I want to coax a questioning between the viewer and their body, what do i hold onto, what holds onto me/takes from me? How can I use this awareness between sensation and action?
Works featured:
Giving Weight. 16mm and super8 transfer to digital video.
Ground up (40'000gsm). Lino print installation.
Jeopardies? HD Video.
This body of work was produced with the support of many hands. I am truly thankful for everyones support in developing this work.
Edinburgh Art Festival team:
Jane Connarty, Abi Webster,
Festival install team (Duncan, Steve and Keith)
Platform Festival link
Workshop participants:
Susannah Stark.
Seamus Killick.
Winnie Herbstein.
Saoirse Wall.
Camera and mentoring: Margaret Salmon
Assistance: Igor Slepov
Sound design: Joe Howe.
Music: Conor Hancock.
Photo documentation: Tom Nolan.
Peer support: Josh Wilson and Paul Hughes.
Platform: 2020, Edinburgh Art Festival.
City Art Centre, Edinburgh.
About:
This work is the continued exploration of the dialogue between collective experience and weight (and/or gravity): how is this used in, with or against singular and collective bodies? Within the currently crisis I focused on sensations shared through collective action/experience, that Could be explored in isolation. For Platform I presented 3 works; Giving Weight a playful document of a movement and print workshop exploring sensations fo Grounding, groundlessness and inertia. The grounding exercise of printing with body weight is continued to be explored in Ground Up (40’000 gsm) : inspired by the physical weight given to a cause in acts of protest and occupation, I created this reworking of a typographic print “DEADWEIGHT” based on Deutsche Gothic fonts, using my own bodyweight to print the mass of paper. 40’000 gsm refers to the total spread of bodyweight used in the printing; alluding to the potential and power of collective weight/efforts. what remains of the collective body after the event? What is atomised? The final work Jeopardies? explores the three sensations asking What has got a hold of you? socially, politically and emotionally in the form of a corrupted TV game show format. I want to coax a questioning between the viewer and their body, what do i hold onto, what holds onto me/takes from me? How can I use this awareness between sensation and action?
Works featured:
Giving Weight. 16mm and super8 transfer to digital video.
Ground up (40'000gsm). Lino print installation.
Jeopardies? HD Video.
This body of work was produced with the support of many hands. I am truly thankful for everyones support in developing this work.
Edinburgh Art Festival team:
Jane Connarty, Abi Webster,
Festival install team (Duncan, Steve and Keith)
Platform Festival link
Workshop participants:
Susannah Stark.
Seamus Killick.
Winnie Herbstein.
Saoirse Wall.
Camera and mentoring: Margaret Salmon
Assistance: Igor Slepov
Sound design: Joe Howe.
Music: Conor Hancock.
Photo documentation: Tom Nolan.
Peer support: Josh Wilson and Paul Hughes.
About
C.V.
Research
Current Projects
Platform exhibition Online version
How we handle Things
Schema: imprints of ...
Past Projects
...(Cartographies)
Kinships
A Boy stands in for a Rock or Vice Versa.
A Nude Descends and Other Gestures.
A Nude Descends into a Lump 8.1 -8.3
Marina City Pt. 2
Or From Werner to Dan and Back
Letter to Hotbird3
Three Movements of Funny
Collaborations
Dennis Isou
As an artist and choreographer I present work in both dance and visual arts contexts. Formally trained in visual art, my practice is rooted in social dance through Bboying (Breakdancing) and House dance. My practice incorporates contemporary choreographic and improvisational practices. I develop compositions combining video, the body and text to explore choreographic relations between gesture, context and their affects. My current work explores how We handle things; people, objects and how objects handle Us through: environments, architecture, and social structures. Can the gallery and the choreographic field provide a space to present and re-examine these relations that our bodies are in constant dialogue with?
Current Projects
Schema Chapters I-IV
How we Handle Things
markrbleakley@gmail.com
Mark Bleakley Vimeo
@bleakley_mark

Photo_Finn McCullough