© Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12
© Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12
© Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12
“Back in January I was preparing for a screen printing artist in residency at the Frans Masereel Centre in Kasterlee, Belgium and wanted to go there with a new portrait project already started. One night I ended up shooting a few packs of medium format polaroids and really liked what I got. I later scanned the selects and added color to them in photoshop. The color palette and stoic characters created a new version of the Barbados I was familiar with. Shooting at night under streetlights made for an eerie scene.
Once at the residency, I produced a range of artist’s proofs, adding color to each print piece by piece. The color I add is representative of the local plastic shopping bags. I even traveled to the residency with plastic bags and used them to match with the inks I was laying down. I experimented with and collected many shopping bags for over a year before the residency. They stood out for me as soon as I returned to Barbados. You see them everywhere. Their vibrant colors dominate any environment.”
excerpt from an interview made by Abby Wilcox, from Live Fast Mag
© Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12
© Mark King, Adriana, from the series Plastic, 2011-12
© Mark King, Elena, from the series Plastic, 2011-12
More of Mark’s work here