Joseph Marr

Berlin

A Seductive Sticky Mass

The Australian artist Joseph Marr (b. Sydeny, Australia, 1979; lives and works in Berlin) harnesses a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, video, and photography, to make conceptual art in which he delves into questions of consciousness. Using staples like sugar—as well as synthetic resins, oil paints, and acrylic glass—he creates complex self-portraits that he combines with auditive material and painted portrayals of his protagonists from the international club and techno scene. Themes such as lust, sexuality, and the body, but also quieter notes inspired by Buddhist conceptions of interpersonal bonds make his works affecting to behold. Deftly staging emotions and desire itself as a theatrical-symbolic play, Marr has developed the balancing act on the sometimes fine line between “high” and “low,” between affirmation and exposure, between kitsch and appropriation into a distinctive creative strategy. 

The publication Berlin documents the sculptural series Attachment: a condition of being and Together @ Berghain, on which the artist has worked since 2009, and presents them in dialogue with other series. With a contribution by artist and writer Peter Welz.