High Octane Presents! Malled & Walled: American Style
Turbine Space, Glarus, Switzerland
20 July – 3 August 2019
Mark McKinney was included in this group show featuring 17 artists from the United States, presented at the Turbine Space in Glarus, Switzerland.
Press Release
Malled & Walled signifies what is born out of the ever-growing notion of how culture influences perception and life. How people within it are indeed caught in the cycle of those influences. These forces need not be seen as negative. Some are just a part of the everyday … those actions and activities that we are born into, or experience, as we go along in life. The doldrums of a visit to the mall for example. Not realizing that cultural norms might wall us in with regard to how we are expected to live. Living outside of those expectations might find one outside of the tribe – an outsider.
That which we consume, or that envelopes us, is what we might enjoy, or to a degree, loathe. Each person is different. It really depends on where we see ourselves within the cultural milieu. That said, this exhibition is less about the need for an overt political discourse and more about the underlying nature of existing within the culture. Responding to that level of existing can be seen as a political statement if one is willing to allow for it.
Some artists in this exhibit have an over-arching need to address the politics of the day, others simply address the trappings that exist within the culture.
While the notion of “Walled” connotes current politics within the US, it begs the question: Does physical wall keep people out or are we really working to keep people within. Walled into something that is nearly impossible to understand unless one is open to seeing how culture controls the everyday.
The artists in this exhibition work along many fronts and agendas to create their work. Whether it be photography, VR, painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, or use of diverse materials, each has a message about the current state of their experience within the culture that surrounds them.