VIDEO OF THE MONTH: Public Disturbance HB Series, Take 1, Take 2, Take 3 (2010), by Kelly Mark
Vtape is one of nine Toronto sites presenting work by the late Canadian neo-conceptualist Kelly Mark (1967 – 2025) to celebrate her work and life during October and November. Beginning November 1st, you can watch her video Public Disturbance HB Series, Take 1, Take 2, Take 3 right here. The video documents parts of a notorious four-hour public performance, for which Mark hired professional actors to pose as couples and reenact various domestic-based arguments from movie scripts in a public setting. The actual performance included three separate actor-couples each performing different fight scenes. In this video version of the work Mark focuses on just one couple, following their recurring argument in various locations, over the course of the evening.
Information on all of the exhibitions and events making up the multi-site Everything & Nothing programming can be found here. Don’t miss the rare opportunity to take in a survey of Kelly’s work in many media and formats!
Kelly Mark’s media works are now in distribution with Vtape.
Kelly Mark (1967-2025) was a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist born in Welland, Ontario. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and an art diploma from Dundas Valley Art School, she developed a wide-ranging practice spanning video, performance, installation, sculpture, drawing, and more. Infused with irony and a characteristic dry sense of humor, Mark’s conceptual work sought to uncover meaning in the everyday and highlight the labor of artmaking. Rebellious yet regimented, she described her work ethic as such: “I tend to show up late. I usually leave early. I take long breaks. I have issues with authority. I don’t follow instructions. I don’t work well with others. I drink on the job. I complain a lot. But I’m always working.”
While widely known for her installation and sculpture work (particularly in neon tubing), video remained a cornerstone of Mark’s practice. Found footage works like REM, Horroridor, and Prime Time speak to her interest in pop culture, as clips from movies and late night broadcasts are repurposed into sensorial experiences ranging from hypnotic to visceral. In Glow House, an installation series in which entire houses are lit from within by the flicker of TV sets all tuned to the same channel, Mark transforms the banality of late night TV into a surreal experience of viewership in which image is withheld. But at the centre of Mark’s work is Mark herself, exemplified in works like 108 Leyton Ave., a splitscreen where she sits across the table from herself, playing Solitaire, one Kelly beginning statements with “Everything,” the other with “Nothing.” Dialogue like “Everything in moderation” and “Nothing tastes as sweet as what you can’t have” shows the duality of Mark’s personality and the clearest glimpse at her inner world.
Image credits: home page: Public Disturbance HB Series, Take 1, Take 2, Take 3, by Kelly Mark (2010); above: 33 Minute Stare, by Kellly Mark (1996)