Thug Life

Smart Project Space, Amsterdam
2002

Darren Almond, Craig Bell, Marco Cops, Mark Dean, Malachi Farrell, Martin Healy, Richard Menken, Roy Villevoye

bibliography:
Thug Life, SMART Papers, ISSN 1381-5822

exhibited works:

When I Was A Child (I Was ƒucked By Someone I Didn’t Know – Nothing Was Ever The Same. Now I Fear The Same Thing Will Happen To My Child; Sometimes I Fear I Will Do It Myself)

gallery information:

Presented modestly on a monitor in the corner of one space, Mark Dean’s chilling video work lasting eight hours – the hours of sleep – acutely questions paternal love and tenderness and then leaves it vulnerable. With a deep sense of integrity, Dean transgresses boundaries, touching upon certain taboos and primal anxieties. The mute video entitled When I Was A Child (I Was ƒucked By Someone I Didn’t Know – Nothing Was Ever The Same. Now I Fear The Same Thing Will Happen To My Child; Sometimes I Fear I Will Do It Myself) forces his audience to question themselves by awakening and stirring fears inside. A haunting grainy black and white image of a father looking at his young daughter becomes imprinted in one’s memory. Dean looks unflinchingly at what is, and what man does within the dimensions of his own solitude, daring to wrestle with the beautiful and uneasy questions of existence and human frailty.