Shelf Life – The Ornaments Are Talking To Me

About

Are you a collector or hoarder of treasured or favoured items? Does handling them trigger memories, whether happy or sad? How do you remember loved ones after they are gone? 

Mark Clarke’s innovative new exhibition challenges our perception of collecting and remembering, and art versus accumulation. In a series of surprisingly cheery assemblage sculptures Belfast born Mark ponders the theme of life, love and loss. Using familiar mantelpiece ornaments, junk shop tat and car boot treasures, these poetic interpretations of the homemade shrine explore dementia, obsession, good and bad taste, fine art versus outsider art, displacement behaviour and celebrity culture.  

Mark Clarke’s latest piece of work, that takes the form of five monumental, crowded shelves, was inspired by his mother, who died of Alzheimers, and is a poetic reinterpretation of her homemade shrines. The idea for Clarke's vast assemblages came to him when clearing out the family house in Belfast after her death. The shelves are arranged in various themes: Dinnertime, Once Upon A Time, Time To Kill, Showtime and Prime Time and are made up of over 1000 disparate individuals objects. Although no one piece is of any  particular financial value, every piece is imbued with imagined memories, a modern day momento mori. The objects that range from tourist dolls and China dogs to tambourines and paint tins, form an unexpected counterpoint to the fancy French collection of Joséphine Bowes, who collected her own possessions for the The Bowes Museum founded in the 19th century.