Some Things Bleak

Some Things Bleak is a work that questions seeing or not seeing, gender, social class and climate issues, a work about representation and reproduction. A vehicle for perception and gathering.

Following an artist residency in Japan in the spring of 2019, Markus felt a need for silence and contemplation. Intuitively, she built a forest setting in her studio, and began a process of photographic creation. It all began with a found tarpaulin ; the kind of blue tarp commonly seen in Japan, which often reveals itself to be the roof of a homeless person upon closer inspection. Using the sun as the only source of light, plants were photographed through the weave, resulting in images that appeared to be at sea, underwater or floating in a blue sky. Yet it is only a piece of blue woven plastic that hides what is right in front of us. It blocks our view and hides the natural. A deception. An illusion.

Some Things Bleak is a poetic summary of the artist’s thoughts and layered methodology; simultaneously, the work highlights intersectional viewpoints in the metaphor of the printing process.

This publication is a true artist’s work. A hardcover that contains loose sheets, all folded into separate folders, which can be removed and used as separate artworks. Three colors give the publication its identity, white, black and blue, which are combined in the two choices of paper and in the different layers of ink, transparent or opaque.