Mark
Mann
Wish You Were Here, Laurence Miller Gallery
November 1, 2001 – January 5, 2002
On November 1, 2001, a selection of new work by Mark Mann will
open at Laurence Miller Gallery. These new cibachrome photographs
are derived from the ubiquitous “Wish you were here” postcards
from the 1960s. Through the use of digital technology, fragments
from the postcards are enlarged, added to or, subtracted from and
manipulated to crate a nostalgic effect in a highly abstract medium.
The stuff of family vacation provides the subject matter for these
familiar but disquieting pictures. In Deep End, a coterie of swimmers
at a motel pool gathers along the line of demarcation between shallow
and deeper water, but the sheer number of swimmers and the somewhat
blurred imagery make for an unsettling rather than recreational
tone. An eerie sense of mystery is the predominant motif in both
Screen, where a young boy stands precariously on a motel room table
as he gazes into a TV set, and Shallow End, where a clothed figure
stands hesitantly in the shallow water leading into a motel pool.
In Mann’s fantasy world, the promise of fun and recreation
is constantly being thwarted by something that is never shown but
always suggested.
Mark Mann first exhibited at the Laurence Miller Gallery in 1996
with a show of paintings entitled 9 Rounds. Wish You Were Here is
his second solo show and his first using the medium of photography.
Born in Oklahoma in 1970, Mann lives and works in New York City.
