Mark Barker
The Pits
30 November 2019 – 11 January 2020
Press release
17 January 1958: ‘It is a sad but true fact that ultimately my happiest moments are spent not in the presence of another but alone.’
Keith Vaughan, Journals, 1939-1977
Zarinbal Khoshbakht is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Germany by British artist Mark Barker.
Barker’s practice centres on how everyday experiences and anxieties play out on the body, employing a multi-faceted approach to making. Simultaneously tender and nasty, these bodies, like shy guests at a party, nervously negotiate one another at close quarters.
To be in the pits is a very unpleasant situation to find yourself in, it can be the absolute worst. The title of the show however not only speaks of this place of despair, but the underside of your shoulder joint, amongst the warmest areas of your body.
Mark Barker, born 1983, Hertfordshire, UK, lives and works in Berlin. Selected recent exhibitions and screenings include: Super Erotic Group Show, Salon 8, Hamburg, Every contact leaves a trace, LUX, Glasgow, Scotland, The White Shadow, Peles Empire, Berlin, The Ultimate Vessel, Koppe Astner, Glasgow, Mark Barker, Southard Reid, London, Other People’s Lives, Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen. Barker participated on the Villa Lena residency, Italy, in 2018.