Mark Lewis and the cinema of daily life

By Juan-Ramón Barbancho

Mark Lewis (1958, Hamilton, Canada) began his work as a photographer seeking, from among the wide range of possibilities offered by this art form, those images which would bring him closest to a study of nature and its connection with human life. From there, he turned to the moving image, a logical progression which many artists have made in recent years. From the “still” representation offered by photography, he clearly looked for, and asked for, more, moving on from the static as if trying to dive into the possibilities of the work and its subtext, bringing landscapes and people alive in an attempt to depict the action.

At the same time his videos, or his cinema to be exact, has not left behind this photographic touch, both in the shots he films and in the aesthetics of each of his works, and also because the end result of all of his works in this medium have more to do with photography than with filming. In many of his videos, the camera moves slowly over a determined subject, finally coming to rest as a fixed image which in many cases functions as the culmination of the work. For Michael Rush, perhaps the most knowledgeable expert on his work, “Mark Lewis enjoys the final moments… for Lewis, the end provides a certain freedom to explore what has been left behind, even when the rest of the world is heading in a different direction”.

Mark lewis, Spadina, 2006. Courtesy of the artist.

Along these lines, each video’s sequence of images appears to want to ramble through two traditional concepts of Art —the representations of time and space—, a desire frequently witnessed, with more or less success, in the works of many artists. When there was no possibility in art of moving the images in order to represent these concepts, artists superimposed the different historical moments they wished to portray in the same picture, thus conferring more prominence to the narration. For example, in scenes of Christ’s Passion different sequences are superimposed, moving the scenes closer to the spectator as the action develops. Velázquez, for example, used the narrative technique of “a picture within a picture” to recount various things at the same time, even to the extent of presenting a close up of an almost unimportant scene –the theme of the work– whilst situating the important scene –the meaning of the work– further back.

In other media, space and time are difficult concepts to define and embody, although throughout history there have been magnificent examples, as have just been mentioned. Video – and obviously, cinema – are the media par excellence here. Perhaps for this reason Lewis decided in the 90s to “dynamise” his photographic work, locating the narration of his work in the moving images of cinema.

Mark Lewis, Isosceles, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.

I refer more to cinema than to video art because Lewis’s work is closer to the former than to the latter, even on the most material and technical levels. As I said, it was in the last decade of the XX century that he began to work with moving images, recording on a single 35mm roll lasting 4 minutes. He generally continued to work within these constraints until a few years ago, when he began to experiment with other formats and durations.

But cinema is not important in his work solely for his material and technical approach, but also for the themes he tackles: he is not afraid of working on films which have already been made or themes which have already been broached, nor with the very concept of cinema and staging. This is evident in Peeping Tom (2000) (Film 35 mm colour) and Upside down Touch of Evil (1997). These films could be seen for the first time in Spain at the Remakes (2004) exhibition, on loan from the capcMusée in Bordeaux, and can be seen again at the end of 2008 at Gijon’s Centro de Cultura Antiguo Instituto de Gijón (Cultural Centre of Gijón). These works address the concept of remakes, sheltering under the wing of the appropriationism typical of postmodernism. Lewis centred on the destruction of cinema history through the selection of elements from different films, using simple techniques and traditional means. Through the use of professional actors and equipment, he reveals the essence of cinema, suggesting that this is nourished by other disciplines and allowing him, like many others, to use this medium to nourish his own work. But on certain occasions his work also seeks to do homage both to Hollywood and vanguard cinema.

Lewis has just had an exhibition in the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (Andalusian Centre for Contemporary Art), where a series of works entitled “Films from everyday” was shown for the first time in Spain. The title is an apt definition of both this collection and of his work in general.

Rear Projection (Molly Parker), 2006 is one of the pieces exhibited at the CAAC. It is possible that this work summarises many of his interests. Lewis combines landscape and portrait, a common theme in cinema and recurrent in the work of this artist, together with photography and painting, which endows his work with the plastic character which makes it so aesthetic.

Juan-Ramón Barbancho is a curator, critic and PhD in History of Art based in Sevilla (Spain).