Mark Ther (screenprint)

Product detailed description

Original graphics by Mark Ther.

Special edition for the Telegraph.

Screenprint, 72 × 51 cm

100 pcs

In the person and work of Mark Ther, the well-known cliché about the inseparable connection between life and art is fulfilled in practice. His work is largely characterised by his external influence and his genuine, immediate interest in things. He is primarily concerned with feature films, gallery installations and drawing. His way of working is characterised by a certain director's approach, directing individual details and elements of meaning into a final whole. In this way, he creates plastic and (seemingly) authentic fictional worlds, within which he deals with themes related to the objects of his fascination. Whether it is a play with language, the fate of the Sudetenland and its inhabitants, queer themes or fashion. He often takes the aforementioned authenticity to a certain extreme, only to undermine it immediately so he can give us a glimpse of the backstage. A number of lines of interpretation could certainly be successfully developed in relation to Mark's vast body of work, aiming at his profound theoretical reflection. But one could equally say that the most interesting thing about Mark Ther is Mark Ther himself.

Mark Ther's original graphic with the Garfield motif was created on the occasion of the May exhibition at the Telegraph Gallery in 2022. At that time, the 250 m2 exhibition space in Olomouc was transformed into a villa, whose visual appearance replicated  1980s East Germany. Mark Ther was thus strongly inspired by his own origins. The ubiquitous figure of Garfield, the red cat, which the artist refers to as a kind of symbol that accompanied him throughout his childhood, is related to this. The symbol of Garfield was thus an obvious choice for Ther's subject for the Telegraphic series - in this way the artist refers to himself and his origins. However, the prints also function as a kind of memento of the successful May exhibition at the Telegraph Gallery in Olomouc.