EXITUS

Mark Hipper
7 - 30 August 2020

exitus, n. L; used in German slang and forensic and medical jargon for death. This is one of the meanings of the English word exit.

These paintings arose from my response to the current war on Iraq, the events that have preceded it, and the Orwellian "Newspeak" which accompanies it.

I have attempted to empty these paintings of all but 2 signs: exit/exitus. An exit sign is a cue, a directive; it marks the possible call for action, a point of departure, of death, and is a signal (a shifting signifier) of some threat, warning or challenge. Apart from these, the paintings are comprised of an array of indexical signs and 'objects' which may be read as indexical to the extent that they have been acted upon, and bear the marks or traces of these actions, none of which signify on the level of a coded message - as in representation, sign or language. Instead the indexical signs are traces or mementos of events and actions that have already occurred. They exist as the trace or residue, and thus mark an absence. Language, and representations, proliferates in an attempt to fill precisely that absence.

These paintings communicate on the level of a challenge, a call for action, a demonstration, and hopefully, ideally, as an imperative.

ArtThrob
Mark Hipper's global-political stance, Andrew Lamprecht, ArtThrob Issue No. 73, September 2003

The Inquisitors
Joáo Ferreira Gallery, 6 - 18 January 2020

Interim
Joáo Ferreira Gallery, 9 January - 2 February 2020

ARTIST

Sieve (detail) 2003 plastic mesh, cable ties, 1200 X 2020 X 1000mm

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