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Kelly Mark, 108 Leyton Ave (2014), Single-channel split-screen video, 10:13 min. Courtesy the artist and Diaz Contemporary, Toronto
Kelly Mark, 108 Leyton Ave (2014), Single-channel split-screen video, 10:13 min. Courtesy the artist and Diaz Contemporary, Toronto.

Kelly Mark | 108 Leyton Ave

February 2, 2016  to February 7, 2016 


108 Leyton Ave by Kelly Mark is one of ten art videos and short films presented as part of Further Than I Can Throw A Stone. Over the duration of the exhibition, a selection of works by a diverse and international group of artist is presented sequentially as stand alone artworks, each projected for one week at a time. They are joined through medium and an interplay of performance and biography. This week, Plug In ICA is pleased to present Mark’s 108 Leyton Ave, a darkly humorous video incisively about “everything “ and “nothing.”

For 108 Leyton Ave, Kelly Mark mirrors Kelly Mark in a humourous conversation with herself that uses one cliché to form another. The artist sits across herself playing solitaire on both sides of a spilt screen frame carrying on a conversation that ranges in emotion from banal to reprimand. She volleys clichés and aphorisms back and forth using a word or sentiment from the former to lob another one back at herself. This doubling of self and language is comical in its wit and timing, but has a melancholy that is not only a reflection of the artist, but also of a culture that tends towards clichés to remain at the surface of complex human and social behavior.  ‘Everything’ or ‘nothing’ are the extremes between which all else happens.

Kelly Mark is a Canadian conceptual artist based in Toronto. Mark’s multi-media installations and performances engage with her self-proclaimed preoccupation with mundane routines and repetitive rituals of everyday life. She has exhibited internationally at venues including the Art Gallery of Ontario and The Power Plant Toronto; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Muse d’Art Contemporain, Montreal; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Bass Museum, Miami; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Lisson Gallery, London and the Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand. Mark represented Canada at the Liverpool Biennale in 2006 and the Sydney Biennale in 1998.


On Monday, February 8th, Plug In ICA will launch Lisa Jackson’s SAVAGE.

Cécile B. Evans, Trilogy (January 22 – 31) • Kelly Mark, 108 Leyton Ave (February 1 – 7) • Lisa Jackson, SAVAGE (February 8 – 14) • Erika Vogt, Darker Imposter (February 15 – 21) • Erica Eyres, Autobiography I and II (February 22 – 28) • John Bock, Bauchhöhle bauchen(February 29 – March 6) • Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tristan Bera, Belle comme le jour(March 7 – 13) • Karrabing Film Collective, Windjarrameru, the Stealing C*nt$ (March 14 – 20) • John Knight, MacGuffin 8 -2975 (March 21 – 27) • Jeremy Blake, Winchester (March 28 to April 3).


Plug In ICA gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council. We thank the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for their support of our 2016 and 2017 program, and we extend gratitude to The Winnipeg Foundation and all our generous donors, valued members and dedicated volunteers.

For general information please contact: info@plugin.org

For media inquiries please contact: Janique Vigier at janique@plugin.org or by phone at (204) 942-1043 ext. 27