Mark Beatty
The Purple Road Project
4 to 28 September 2024

Open Studio Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

The Purple Road began as a series of images documenting my travels during lockdown. Using Google Maps Street View to break restrictions, this sequence of screenshots highlights some of the places I have been to on the road.

Specific to West Cork this two year project uses online platforms for the purpose of spreading myth and mystery in the world and attempts to entertain myself and others through the pursuit of strangeness in unlikely but familiar places. During my residency I aim to give physical presence to the project through the creation of an interactive Purple Road road map.

I aim to give physical presence to my online Instagram project The Purple Road through the creation of an interactive Purple Road road map.

Drawing excites me. It is a place where possibility is framed by practicality. It is at the core of everything I make. As an activity I see it as an antidote to my anxieties about the past and future; it is a mantra, a way to regain control, the moment. Performing the same series of tasks, I make ritual out of repetition in pursuit of magic, meaning and the unknown. My work explores our relationship to materials, the space they occupy in the world and seeks a place outside of established norms. I try to blur the edges of our perceived reality and see if it there is anything else there; to make what is familiar unknown and unknown familiar.

I will use the studio as a hub for the Purple Road Project for the duration of the residency.

The hub will be open in keeping with the gallery opening times, Monday to Saturday.

The Hub will consist of a Purple Road road map, a computer to access and travel along The Purple Road and a 2 x 5 m sheet of paper and a large black marker.

I will engage with the public on a one to one basis. With the aid of a map I will introduce them to the Purple Road Map and allow them to use it as a guide to travel/explore and interact with The Purple Road.

Each participant will be asked to contribute 1 line to a large scale/ group/ communal drawing to respond to the idea of a journey through space and time. The drawing will be present in the studio for the duration of the residency.

Since my first solo show in 2016 in the Clonakilty Community Arts Centre, Time. Spent. Drawing., I have completed two residencies in the West Cork Arts Centre Drift Junkie/ The Things We Threw Away in 2018 and I Can't See The Paper From The Wood From The Trees in 2020. I have participated in the Skibbereen Arts Festival in 2021 and again in 2022 with the help of the West Cork Arts Centre on the site specific work We Worship at the Temple.

My work has been included in group exhibitions in the LAB, TBG&S and The Douglas Hyde Gallery.

https://www.instagram.com/thepurpleroad/

https://wearethecleveranimals.wordpress.com/

Mark Beatty
September 28, 2020 to January 13, 2021

Copy and paste, peel and stick, fold, cut, repeat, replicate. Press, push, punch, kick, left, right, wrong, right. Performing the same series of tasks, Mark finds himself somewhere between the misery of toil on a factory line and the indomitable joy of dancing. He explores this conundrum using the materials present in his life. He sets off in pursuit of magic and the unknown, it is a search for a way out, an escape from the mundanity of everyday life and expectations.

For more information and examples of his work please see the following online

Biography: Mark had his first solo show in 2016 in the Clonakilty Community Arts Centre, Time. Spent. Drawing. The year following he began a three month residency with Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre working on a project Drift Junkie/ The Things We Threw Away in 2018. This year Mark participated in the Skibbereen Arts Festival and is now on residency working on a project I Can't See The Paper For The Wood For The Trees. He is currently living in West Cork.

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible.