Mark Flood | Outcrop, 2004

Hi, my name is Bill Arning. I got to curate a survey of this artist, Mark Flood's work going back 20 years and he is an artist who is resistant to the mechanisms of celebrity in the art world. He critiques them he doesn't let his photograph be taken. So, to produce a retrospective was understandably something that goes against his grain. And nonetheless, we had a very fascinating, revelatory experience, since he is among the best-known artists who've chosen to remain in Texas. These pieces, what are called the lace paintings, are a type of self-critical enterprise, unquestionably beautiful they are produced through a very simple method of laying lace down on a canvas and then applying paint thickly to the surface. He even showed videos of how he made them and how quickly he could knock out one of these works. And the desire was to take that mechanism of desire that "oh, I want this, this is beautiful, let me buy this" and put a mirror on it. The show had lace paintings that were massive mural scale and unquestionably seductive. But the mechanism of their visual seduction of us was, in fact, the subject. This one is a very brightly colored light one diaphanous effect. The eye can really go in and have a great time looking at the designs that are inherent in the lace, but you're also meant to see yourself seeing this. The desire to own it, the desire to live with it, the desire to look it again is revealed to you as if you're looking in a mirror.