MARK WALLINGER | Dundee Contemporary Arts

A film is shown projected in a dark space. The film still we can see shows 3 people up some scaffolding, behind them is the sea and a strip of sky that aligns perfectly with the platform. This gives the illusion of the people standing on the sea, their feet hit the horizon line.

Shown in two parts, the exhibition focused on Wallinger’s id Paintings (2015/16), then his most recent body of work – an ambitious series of large-scale Rorschach blot-like images created entirely by the artist’s hands. To make the works he used both hands simultaneously, the left mirroring the right, creating symmetry through his gesture. In making these works he has moved his focus from, as he says, “painting ‘I’s to ‘I paint’” – or from image to action.

Alongside these paintings, there was a selection of Wallinger's films, sculpture and wall-based work, exploring themes of circularity, symmetry and psychoanalysis that recur throughout his work. Orbits and rotation also featured strongly, inviting viewers to consider their own relationships to space and time.

A film is projected in a dark room, while a person watches. They are standing, there is also a low bench to the right of the photograph. The film still shows a pub front.

Some of the work on show included Orrery (2016); a new video work featuring the New Fairlop Oak in the centre of the Fullwell Cross roundabout in East London which Wallinger drove around filming throughout the year, each screen depicting a different season while the oak appears to revolve with the stillness of the camera frame. It also included an installation of a life-sized police phonebox, Time and Relative Dimensions in Space (2001) which is completely mirrored and appears to disappear as it reflects its surroundings.

MARK WALLINGER MARK was a collaboration between Serlachius Museums, Mänttä, The Fruitmarket Gallery and Dundee Contemporary Arts. A book was published to accompany these exhibitions, introducing Mark Wallinger’s most recent body of work, the monumental id Paintings (2015/16). It is available to buy through DCA Shop.

Artist interview | Mark Wallinger Mark

An old fashioned police box stands in the gallery space, painted half white and half grey with a bright white light on top. Beyond this we can see an installation of freestanding monitors facing each other.

About the artist

Wallinger (b.1959) has exhibited widely since 1983. He studied in London at the Chelsea School of Art (1978-81) and Goldsmiths College (1983-85). He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and won the Turner Prize in 2007. His work is part of numerous leading international collections including Tate, London; MoMA, New York; and Centre Pompidou, Paris. He is represented by Hauser & Wirth, and lives and works in London.