Hello! Thank you for visiting my first blog post if you are reading this, much appreciated. I’ve decided to start a blog page on my website for a two reasons, one being to move away from social media for better mental health, the other as a diary or record of sorts regarding exhibitions and other activities surrounding my studio work and writing/reading. I miss the days when folks would write extensively in their blogs, whether it was tumblr or blogspot etc. I have had a few chats with friends lately around the notion of “do you remember when the internet was exciting? When it was fun?” … I could digress, maybe another day.
First I’d like to address an article that was published under my name for an online publication called The Collector. I submitted two pieces to them way back in 2023, one of which was a piece I wrote about Henry Darger years ago, with some updates on my part of course. The other article isn’t even worth mentioning in my opinion, but I will say it is a very dry informational piece on Pre-dynastic Egyptian art; I have not even read/checked how their editor edited it. As for my piece on Henry Darger, I did check the editing post publication, and I was not happy with it to say the least. In order to combat my frustration and ease my pain, I would like to make my original writing free & open to the public via a google drive link, you may read my original article here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yXcvzr720A3OS2o-ZFRE4_gdMEKQqA3z/view?usp=sharing Henry has a very special place in my heart for several very personal reasons (was initially going to explain, but I’m not feeling that open today, lol). However, I will say that I had an art history professor in undergrad (whose name I won’t mention because if I did RIP tbh) who spoke about Henry briefly in class one day, and ended a very dull summary of his immense body of work by saying “well, you know he was just a boy who spent too much time with his mother.” I went up to her after class, let her know her PhD wasn’t shit in the most eloquent way possible, and she told me she was just joking. For brief context prior to reading the article (if you want to), Henry’s mother died when he was an infant, and he was separated from his father at eight years old due to his father poor health and inability to take care of Henry.
Second, I’d like to direct you towards two group exhibitions I am a part of this summer, one being the Brand 52 Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper curated/juried by Shana Nys Dambrot at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, California (exhibited from June 15th to August 9th), and the other titled “Change of Physical State: Metal, Stone, & Glass” curated/juried by Masako Onodera at the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau, Wisconsin (exhibited from June 5th to August 10th). If you find yourself in one of those two locations, please go check out all the work. Here is a link to the online catalog for the Brand 52 exhibition: https://online.fliphtml5.com/tzjnt/resy/#p=1 My work in this show is a portion of my installation “Fearful Symmetry,” specifically the looping video projection. As for the show at the Center for Visual Arts, we were provided with some photos of the display, some of which I’ll post here. Additionally, here is a link to the show description & full list of exhibiting artists: https://www.cvawausau.org/caroline-s-mark-gallery My works in this show include two of my sconce sculptures from my larger installation “فرن الأرواح | Furnace of the Spirits.” Although the light in them is red in original install, I think it’s very fun/funny that the lights are on color changing mode (I think?) as they appear green/blue in some photos. While I was finishing up this installation piece (my MFA thesis) in 2023, I was listening to Bioshock gameplay (I chose chaos to ease chaos, I needed an emotional mirror I guess lmao), which involves the 1st person player’s powerful glowing hand, typically green or blue, powered by plasmids (a serum derived from a volatile genetic substance that introduces modified stem cells into the body, resulting in mutations, or super powers). Upon receiving these photos, I smiled for obvious reasons. The gameplay if you are curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFjMkFwB1ck Also this is such a great way to channel the Mars/Uranus conjunction we have today, it’s VERY Mars/Uranus in Taurus! Just had that realization…
That’s all for now, thank you for reading this far if you are reading this. More to come on other topics, etc etc…
-Isa