Untitled (Buoy)

overview

Mark Bradford’s work is distinguished by expansive collage paintings and sculptures composed of mysterious strata, which the artist forms from materials scavenged from the urban environment of his South Central Los Mark Bradford’s work is distinguished by expansive collage paintings and sculptures composed of mysterious strata, which the artist forms from materials scavenged from the urban environment of his South Central Los Angeles neighbourhood. Building his canvas with layers of billboard paper, posters and newsprint, he creates an intricate network of pathways and histories that reference socioeconomic politics abstracted through a geometry that relies on additive and subtractive processes.

The fifteen Untitled (Buoy) works (2014) installed on the façade of Bait Obaid Al Shamsi belong to Bradford’s most recent series, which draws inspiration from medieval and Renaissance maps and the fantastical, frightening creatures that inhabit their depictions of distant oceans or unexplored regions of the globe. Their swollen structure extends the maritime theme, while twine and coloured paper that has been torn, painted, sanded and otherwise ravaged evoke a panoramic vista surrounded by water – or possibly, a monster floating at sea. These dense, complex compositions reflect Bradford’s own sense of geological and geographical exploration.

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 12