Towards Super-Connection is a mobile and modular installation and exists in a significant relationship with the place of its manifestation. It derives from a concept of quantum theory in which the quantum state of a particle is related to that of every other particle in that particular system. Towards Super-Connection explores through the site-specific installation, and both the featured drawings on paper and the lightbox, a dystopian present where nature sublimates itself to the needs of a system of structures and constructive forms: a changing system where the model exists as a code inherent in its parts. In the end, it is clear how Mark Cullen’s research is recurrent the spatial survey, and the representation of primigenial figures that are also evident in his site-specific installations – they seem like a 3D representation of these generative natural elements which are at the base of the Universe itself.
The exhibition features a modular installation of rods and geometric intersections derived from Buckminster Fuller’s geodetic design concepts. The structure composed of bamboo strips is susceptible to a conservation process where each element is carefully hand-laminated in PVC tape, followed by aluminium tape to give an aspect both futuristic and vernacular. This process perfectly follows the protection and conservation process of satellite components coated with a gold or aluminium film to protect them from cosmic radiation. This procedure represents for the artist both a meticulous meditative process and a gesture towards the safeguarding of a natural material such as bamboo by completely subsuming its essence: exploiting its form for a new esoteric purpose – that of making art.
Featured image: Mark Cullen, Towards Super-Connections, 2020. Modular sculptural system: bamboo, aluminium, hydro pipe, steel fixings, dimensions variable, installed at Portrane, Fingal, Co. Dublin.
Mark Cullen, Towards Super-Connection (28th January – 13th March 2022, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genoa IT)
Selected reviews:
https://www.rainews.it/tgr/liguria//notiziari?wt_mc=2.www.mail.tgrliguria_ContentItem-bda7d23d-a399-482c-b8ab-a524ce51803b.&wt
https://www.facebook.com/telenordliguria/videos/670733944161860
Radio Inblu2000, podcast link: https://www.radioinblu.it/2022/02/05/notte-stellata-towards-super-connection/
The exhibition was generously supported by Culture Ireland, the Irish Embassy and The Arts Council of Ireland, and kindly hosted by the Museums of Genoa – Villa Croce and the Municipality of Genoa.
