Time's Museum of Shape and Form

Opening at 8pm on Friday, April 17

Artist Talk at 2pm on Saturday, April 18

Mark Dudiak's exhibition of new work, Time's Museum of Shape and Form, examines how the Infinite evolved from an abstract concept to a culturally embodied truth through the accretion of fictional speculation. As looming ecological catastrophe and the possibility of human immortality force a fundamental redefinition of the Infinite, artists will be called upon to provide new definitions of truth. Exploiting this opportunity, Dudiak offers an alternative history of the Eternal, blending death quests, organized religion, and financial currency, into a parallel fictional narrative whose trajectory questions contemporary readings of history, and our personal biological legacy.

Taking its title from mountaineer Fosco Maraini's iconic description of the Himalayas, Time's Museum of Shape and Form features digital 3D video that imagines three symbolic representations of Eternity as literally infinite, immutable realities. Accompanied by a first person, spoken monologue that borrows freely from Coleridge, Tennyson, Tolkien, and others to describe the invention and refinement of a cultural concept of Infinity; Time's Museum of Shape and Form highlights the quotidian pragmatism of cultural self-definition and claims both truth and history as sites for artistic intervention.

Mark Dudiak is an emerging Canadian artist living in Toronto, Time's museum of Shape and Form continues his interest in fluid re-interpretations of history and the social construction of wonder. Since receiving his BFA from the Emily Carr Institute in 2003 Dudiak has exhibited sculptural installations, performances and videos in venues across Canada including: the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina; the Helen Pitt Artist Run Centre, Vancouver; and STORAGE in Vancouver. The accompanying publication to Time's Museum of Shape and Form features an essay by McGill PhD candidate Ben Barootes on Ekphrasis, the literary reinterpretation of visual expression.