The Stick (2020)
Mark Baskett
Dimensions: 345mm x 435mm, 385mm x 872mm, 1200mm x 360mm
Mixed Media
Mixed Media
Early in Disgrace, a novel by J.M.Coetze, the story’s chief protagonist—the adjunct professor, David Lurie—tells the reader his hard-won lesson: the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing. 1
Can this be true? Having been at NMIT for almost five years now as a teacher, I’ve been thinking about education, and more specifically, about what might occur in secondary education, when in the net of those early high school years. What does this time ‘look’ like? What did my time ‘look’ like?—in the late 80’s, in Dunedin, in a school that was itself built on the site of the city’s first fully fenced asylum. And most importantly of all, can I develop a type of artwork that can capture some underlying sense of these things? These are, or so I believe, some concerns and current themes I’m trying to grapple with and pin down within this work.
Can this be true? Having been at NMIT for almost five years now as a teacher, I’ve been thinking about education, and more specifically, about what might occur in secondary education, when in the net of those early high school years. What does this time ‘look’ like? What did my time ‘look’ like?—in the late 80’s, in Dunedin, in a school that was itself built on the site of the city’s first fully fenced asylum. And most importantly of all, can I develop a type of artwork that can capture some underlying sense of these things? These are, or so I believe, some concerns and current themes I’m trying to grapple with and pin down within this work.
1. J.M.Coetzee, Disgrace (London: Vintage Books, 1999), 5.
About
Mark Baskett is a practicing visual artist, born in Dunedin, New Zealand. After completing tertiary studies—first in New Zealand and then in Germany—he has gone on to participate in a variety of artist exhibitions and has also undertaken a number of artist residencies. To date his work has been shown in Switzerland, Belgium, the United States, and Germany, along with some early work shown in Australia, and more recently work’s been shown in New Zealand.
For more information and contact details please visit Mark Baskett's website www.mbaskett.ch