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Mark Cooper

Medium: Sculpture
Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Mark Cooper’s paintings and sculptures made with wood and fiberglass pieces, layered with rice paper, paint, silk-screens, and varying images and patterns, explore dualities of culture and meaning. Cooper is best-known for his large scale museum and gallery installations as well as large scale public art made with individuals of all ages includingchildren, hospital patients, and students for such institutions as The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston College Museum, and Capital Children’s Museum in Washington, DC. He received his MFA from Tufts University/SMFA, and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Practice at Boston College and Faculty SMFA. Cooper’s work is in several major museums, as well as corporate and private collections.

Elsewhere:
http://markfcooper.com/index.html

Interview

  • Consenses Interview with Sally Taylor:

    What was this film about? Nostalgia and first love and forbidden love

    What was the emotion? Melancholy and bittersweet.  Smaller wall floor installation with artifacts that I’d made of clay that looked like they’re out of the bottom of the ocean with tons of shelves.  I was pulled into the past by the thoughts of objects that hold in them, my history but also hold other’s histories before me.  The nostalgia that objects hold that are crooked and organic but they’ve had a life and they are loved and been given meaning… I’m very interested in Collecting and collections and why do people do it.  This idea of articles and what gives something value and the idea of objects conversing.  These pedestals are almost more important than the things they present.  What are these extraneous articles that I project meaning on but was was the original intention of the object before I gave it meaning and value. I tried to stay opened.

    Show Full Interview

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Work on Consenses

Nostalgia

Participated in

Chain 08
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Nostalgia

The film, and specifically the accompanying music, suggests melancholy and a nostalgic story about first love. All that comes after influences the memory of first love. When I thought of what I’d create in response, I imagined an installation with tons of shelves filled with artifacts I’d made from clay that looked like they’d come out of the bottom of the ocean – out of a past experience. I thought about objects that are signifiers of the past that take on new meaning over time. The objects on the shelves represent collections, collecting, and memories that people hang on to. Placing a number of these objects in relationship to each other impacts their meaning and interpretation. The objects converse and share their stories. The pedestals, on which the artifacts are presented, invite the viewer to question what reflects and resonates as truth and which is more valuable: the artifacts or the display. These shelves are surrounded by ethereal prints on rice paper that mirror the sculptural forms and reinforce the suggestion of memory and the magic of those experiences that form us and shape that we become throughout our lives.

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