statement

Informed by a wide range of sources including technology and science, Darren Marsh is interested in drawing as search process - the performative and processual aspects of drawing and making as an act that can be used to express our experiences of what it is to be in this world.

Through the medium of drawing he produces mark making systems to serve as forms of meaning making, a strategy for exploring the potential of the medium and a means through which to explore and communicate his ideas.

His work raises questions about our relationships with technology and the impact that it brings to the processes of making, whilst acknowledging the potency of the hand-made. There is no hierarchy of materials or procedures, the works are open ended, seeking to fold processes in upon themselves and cross genres.

The work 'Mouse Drawing #24' belongs to a larger body of works that owe their coherence to an ongoing inquiry into the notion of work and dematerialised labor within the digital, and how we as human beings move between the digital and physical realms.

A pen is attached to a computer mouse and placed onto a sheet of paper. The movement of the hand, the functioning of the mouse and computer interface all become integral elements in a drawing process set over a designated period of time. Each drawing begins without any definitive sense of destination or outcome. Marks grow into surface and depth giving form to that which emerges.

The mouse/pen serves as a bodily connection with a technology; a direct link between one's actions and a machine. It transcribes rhythmic gestures of real-time activity whilst documenting the digital trace of an invisible labor - an abstract reflection of the digital non-space.

bio

born: 1971, England

education

Salford University, HND, 1992

selected group shows

The Dark Would, Text Festival, Bury Art Museum, England, 2014
The Dark Would, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2013/2014
SKETCH Sketchbook Drawing Prize, Touring Exhibition, United Kingdom, 2013/2014
Anonymous Drawings, Kunstverein Tiergarten | Galerie Nord, Berlin, Germany, 2013