22 JUNE 2012 - 14 OCTOBER 2012
Twice nominated for the Turner Prize, once in 1995 and again in 2007 when he won, Mark Wallinger is one of the best known figures in the British art world. In 1999 his Ecce Homo occupied Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth to great acclaim and in 2001 he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. For SITE, the artist’s largest exhibition in the UK for over a decade, Wallinger will realise three major new commissions and give the UK premiere of his new film ‘Construction Site’ 2011.
Wallinger turns everyday moments of life into transcendent possibilities, Attempting to systematise nature, the mundane and the abstract, 10000000000000000 2012 catalogues and compares 65,536 stones, each occupying its own square on a gargantuan checkerboard — the simplest binary device for implying order. The Other Wall, in contrast, sees randomness contained in the form of a monumental brick wall. Each brick is numbered sequentially by hand prior to construction and then distributed with no order. On the side of BALTIC’s building, overlooking the River Tyne, Wallinger creates the simplest of self-portraits for a digital age.