mark connery

I’ve been putting stuff in nine Mason jars – odd preserves, nothing edible. Bunches of drawings, xeroxed collage, scrapbook trimmings, bits of old books, tin foil, origami paper, beads and stuff. I usually work in two dimensions, doodling in notebooks and putting them into zines, writing and drawing comix, and making the occasional larger collage or painting. I like to put things together that create associations, refer back to themselves, say something about the life of the dreaming mind of those in this city and region. The jars can be tumbled; who needs tumblr? These nine jars of uniform size and manufacture build on a strain of work I developed for a show at the Blinding Light Cinema in Vancouver, part of an artist bottle cap project to fit their bubble vending machine. I built landscapes from paint, bits of newspaper and busted up pills. They were hard to identify as art or garbage; I hope these jars do the same thing. They are much bigger, easier and harder to control. It has been an odd and intense pleasure scouring the streets for abandoned bits, collating doodle pages, evaluating detritus, selecting materials in the hopes they’ll fade and warp through August 2012 at 85 Carlaw. The designs, drips and stains will grow, warp and disappear like mushrooms for the eyes. Many thanks to the Nog-A-Dod, Wowee Zonk, CultCom, Perro Verlag, Asemic & DDL crews for their brilliance and encouragement to meet this odd future. Mark Connery-2012 main page