I am only around when you don't need me 2005 / 2009

BROAD STROKES

If one could paint a mosaic, it might have the same effect as Mark Khaisman’s images. His medium, however, is not the pastose colors of stone or glass tiles: the artist reaches for packing tape. He consciously employs a Pop-Art strategy, not only in his use of everyday motifs but also his artistic treatment of things and his direct use of such objects in his works.

Khaisman’s way of subtly quoting and imitating art trends is also very contemporary; he calls his approach “post-conceptual.” Overlapping bands of packing tape in varying widths create differently colored and sized surfaces through which the background photographic image shines, illuminated from behind. The photo is inherently altered. The result is not all that different from a monochromatic mosaic.

The artist’s work method is a painterly one. He spreads the packing tape onto the surface with the wide stroke of a paintbrush. Khaisman allows his inspiration free range while at the same time following the general structure of the photographic image. Slowly but surely the photo succumbs to the packing tape’s rhythm, its basic patterns simplified and its unusual depths amplified.

Khaisman chooses narrative and classic motifs: film scenes stand alongside Roman busts, bringing the quotation elements of Khaisman’s art to a head. The artist-architect was trained in Moscow and today resides in Philadelphia. All of the works, which take their cues from various cultures, are based on the effects of shaded and filtered light. The subject should be universally understood, which is why he selected and integrated into his art a “medium” known and used worldwide.

Horst Kloever