Mark Ollinger

Lives and works in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Artist statement

Communicating through sculpture, Mark's work aims to start a conversation about how we view the passing of time, and examines how we all uniquely understand it. Mark Ollinger's work is best summarized as an investigative approach to the visualization of a lifespan, using "maps" that consist of mazes intertwining and reconnecting in an unbroken loop. Mark's work is concerned with exploring ways of physically realizing, through sculpture, the way we examine the linear progression of time within an individual life. The weaving in the maze symbolizes the specific occurrences or occasions that we use as reference points while considering time past or anticipated - landmarks one refers to while reflecting upon a lifetime. The works look at ways we conceptualize and express this abstract passing of time. A singular line folding both over and under itself references a balance of experiences, with both positive and negative occurrences achieving an equilibrium and symmetry within the work. Recurrence of this weaving creates meeting places of complexity, which mirrors the complex positions or experiences in which we constantly navigate. The work aims not to focus on a starting place or an end, more a cyclical and continuous unfolding of time throughout common human experience. The art embodies this idea in both a micro and macro scale, the former being the daily routines that we find ourselves looping continuously through and the latter, which consists of a larger, more complex loop...

Artwork