Mark Beldan >>

Closed for Season
March 1st - April 4th

 

Skelf SITE presents Closed For Season by Mark Beldan. This new work was filmed last October during a residency on the Toronto Islands, Lake Ontario, Canada.

Parks are always a strange negotiation. They accommodate fragile wildlife and messy picnickers, daily routines and nightly transgressions, summer crowds and winter emptiness. Careful tending is needed to maintain the appearance of tranquility.

In the spring of 2017, Toronto Island Park was part-submerged by unusually high water levels. Just a few months later the park again looks much as it has for decades. It is difficult to picture the recent flooding; the trees standing in water, the duckpond in the field, the carp spawning on the footpath.


View Closed for Season >>

Accompanying this work is a new text by Mia Taylor, below.
                Safe Trip

On a grassy patch in the middle of (you)know wHERE
Notta patch
    … a park?
 APARK!
In a park (out of season) in the middle of nowhere
Out of the corner of my eye
              I spy
A glimmer…
      In leaps a showy, shiny, white crested gallop of a

          NOSTALGIA moment

It’s the Good Ship From Another Time
Seeking an indistinguishable home
As it surges into Port at great speed, I cry

             OPEN ye, Pentagon Shaped Void!
                 Let me feel your soft golden gloe…

  GLOE FLOOD ME
Flood my status quo and glow BRIGHTLY

 And then gloe away so I may
                Continue
                As I was before
Mark Beldan is a painter who also works with text, audio and video. He was born in Toronto but is now based in London. www.markbeldan.com


Mia Taylor is a London-based artist. She has an interdisciplinary practice that includes writing, video, sound, painting and object making. www.miataylor.co.uk
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Skelf is a virtual project space, accessible to anyone, everywhere.


'Archive of Touches' by Flora Parrott and Kelly Large is the final work in a series of four exhibitions on the theme of 'Touch' and exploring what this might mean in a virtual context. Each exhibition has been created specifically for Skelf, working with artists whose practice often relies upon a physical encounter, and reimagining their work immaterially to see what further possibilities are presented.

The 'Touch' series already includes work by artists Jenny Dunseath & Kate Squires, Davinia-Ann Robinson and Holly Graham. There will be an accompanying podcast by Mark Beldan exploring all works in the series (launching August 2022).

Each season (comprising of four new virtual exhibitions and a podcast released over a six-month period) has explored themes that feel incompatible with an online experience. The work from the previous two seasons, ‘Movement’ (May-October 2021) and ‘Gesture’ (November-February 2022) is all available to explore in our archive.

The below podcast by Mark Beldan explores the themes of each of the works in the 'Touch' series and can be streamed or downloaded below. All previous Skelf podcasts can be found here.



Existing entirely online since 2016, we have presented work by over 200 artists and writers on our virtual platform. You can view these works in our archive. This project is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.


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