At Swordfish we’re always striving to support artists and individual designers, therefore we’re proud to be sponsoring Mark McClure’s current exhibition ‘Pseudo Public’ at the Foundry Gallery in Chelsea, London.
We have worked with Mark, a London based artist and designer, regularly over the past year. We adore his work which varies from bespoke gallery pieces and installations to huge public art works on the side of buildings and structures.
Mark is generally inspired by architectural forms, structures and geometry, but admits anything can strike a chord on a daily basis, such as the sun shining through a fence, road markings in a car park or a piece of music.
For his sculptural works, he often combines found materials and texture with clean lines and finishes – so think scrap metal with painted wood or Perspex. For flatter, mosaic works he uses painted wood alongside the grain of untreated wood or concrete elements. “The materials”, he says, “become a palette of both colour and texture”.
Similarly his working processes vary. The sculptures often sit as a loose cluster of elements on a workbench for a few weeks, slowly taking shape and form as elements are added or subtracted. Flatter works tend to start out as a sketch on paper or screen, then worked up to be either cut in his own studio or laser cut at our workshop before being assembled. Colour is usually undecided until late in the process, in order to keep an element of chance and flexibility.
With his recent body of work that Swordfish helped to create, Mark wanted to push the laser cutting process. In by doing so, he has developed and progressed a style that had previously been somewhat restricted by the tools and processes in his own studio.
“I’d seen work that Swordfish had produced with other artists” Mark said, “and they have lots of cool gear under one roof, just down the road from my studio – so it’s a match made in heaven”.
We’re delighted and excited to be able to offer techniques that bring a high level of detail and clean lines representative of Mark’s work and look forward to further collaborations over the coming months as he continues to experiment with new materials and processes.
Next year is an exciting time for Mark with a large installation in the North of England and an exciting collaboration for Clerkenwell Design Week – so watch this space.
In the meantime, we’re so excited to be sponsoring Mark’s first gallery exhibition in London, which is showing at the Foundry Gallery until 9th November. Don’t miss out seeing ‘Pseudo Public’ and experiencing this playful and engaging site-specific installation.
For more information go to:
http://instagram.com/markmcclure
http://www.thefoundrygallery.org
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