SaraNoa Mark

My practice stems from a desire to evidence the constant and invisible activity of time. I think about removal, invisibility, exile, and how draw and archive formlessness. The question of representing the presence of absence challenges cartographers and led to the mathematical concept of zero. My method of drawing is a subtractive process where I carve into my media creating intricate renderings of removal. I look to other carved languages, to concrete sidewalks, canyons hollowed by water, to fragments, to extracted earth, to aerial views of excavations, and echo’s of invisibility. Interconnected with my focus on pictorially articulating the presence of absence is an interest in collections, and in the collecting institutions that unearth the ground embedded with objects. Seeking to understand the psychology of ownership I draw extensively from museum displays —the primary public repositories of relocated objects. I repurpose museum materials and gather sand from around the world to create works that meditate on the absence of displaced objects from their places of origin. My practice begins with questions and a deep need to navigate mystery through materials.