Mark Wallinger creates work that encompasses painting, sculpture, photography, film, installation, performance and public art. This exhibition, presented in two parts, one at The Fruitmarket Gallery and the other at Dundee Contemporary Arts, has been brought together in the context of his newest body of work, the id Paintings.
A selection from this series of vast paintings, each 360cm high (twice Wallinger’s height) and 180cm wide (his height again, and also the extent of his reach with both arms outstretched) is on show in each part of the exhibition. These paintings bring identity into focus as a recurring theme within Wallinger’s practice. Painted by hand (and simultaneously by each hand, the left mirroring the right) they bridge image and action.
This exhibition brings together several such figures, including the bear of Sleeper and the myriad ‘I’s of the Self Portrait paintings. It also moves beyond the standing figure to look at the importance of naming, marking and symmetry in the artist’s work.
Alongside these paintings, there will be a selection of Wallinger's films, sculpture and wall-based work, exploring themes of circularity, symmetry and psychoanalysis that recur throughout his work. Orbits and rotation also feature strongly, inviting viewers to consider their own relationships to space and time.
Some of the work on show includes Orrery (2016); a new video work featuring the New Fairlop Oak in the centre of the Fullwell Cross roundabout in East London which Wallinger drove around filming throughout the year, each screen depicting a different season while the oak appears to revolve with the stillness of the camera frame. It also includes an installation of a life-sized police phonebox, Time and Relative Dimensions in Space (2001) which is completely mirrored and appears to disappear as it reflects its surroundings.
Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, and Dundee Contemporary Arts, until 4 June.
