Mark Lewis: Three Cinematic Works

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University is pleased to present Mark Lewis: Three Cinematic Works, the first exhibition in a newly created space for viewing moving image works located on the third floor of the Carpenter Center.

Mark Lewis: Three Cinematic Works consists of three videos: Downtown, Pan and Zoom; Rush Hour, Morning and Evening, Cheapside; and Queensway Pan and Zoom, and was curated by Dominique Bluher, Lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard.

Don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of these three short, single-shot movies. Rather, let yourself be enchanted by them. Lewis’ work could be seen as homage to the works of the Lumière Brothers, made 110 years before. His films fascinate us in new ways because they are rooted in aesthetic experiences that the cinema has never ceased to express. Each of the films read like imaginative speculations about the constitutive ingredients of moving images: stillness and movement, light and shadow, framing and reframing, contemplation and narration. We know that brevity is the soul of wit. But Charles Baudelaire also reminds us that formal constraints allow aesthetic idea to emerge all the more intensely.

Mark Lewis

Born in Ontario in 1957, Mark Lewis is an artist who lives and works in London. His solo exhibitions include the Vancouver Art Gallery (Canada), Hamburger Kunstverein (Germany), Musée d’art Moderne (Luxembourg), BFI Southbank (London), Museo Marino Marini (Italy), and Forte di Bard (Italy). In 2009 Lewis represented Canada at the 53rd Venice Biennale with his exhibition Cold Morning. Lewis’ films have been shown at a number of international film festivals including the Venice International Film Festival 2011, Toronto International Film Festival 2011, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2010 and Berlin International Film Festival 2010.