The Guardians Mark Newport		Print This Page Email This Page

When

November 9, 2006

Where
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts
and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Description

A unique temporary artwork, The Guardians occurred in conjunction with Luna, the SMoCA Nights event for Fall of 2006. The Scottsdale Public Art Program commissioned artist Mark Newport to create a performance work that linked thematically with the installation Maya II by Jarvis Rockwell as well as exhibitions at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA).

Mark Newport’s performance depicted a “hero,” dressed in one of the artist’s hand-knit superhero costumes, patrolling or “guarding” the areas around Maya II and SMoCA while interacting with the public. Periodically, the hero changed costume, working through four different personas including Batman, The Rawhide Kid, Sweaterman, and Y-Man. While he patrolled, the character conversed with the public through a digitized voice playing from the chest of each costume.

The Guardians raised questions about the nature and source of the mythology of superheroes. It touched on SMoCA’s Border Film Project exhibition by exploring the cultural and personal implications of who protects us, and from what? It will also brought attention to the iconic figures on the MAYA II pyramid in the atrium. The patrolling superhero crossed borders as well as questioned societal norms and personal expectations about what society requires from its protectors and heroes in a diverse and complicated world.

Newport has been creating his unique costume works since 2003. He is a faculty member with the College of Fine Art at the Arizona State University and has exhibited his work in numerous museums and galleries both nationally and internationally. Among his many awards and accolades, he has recently been awarded two grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts: an Artist’s Project Grant and a Career Advancement Grant, as well as a Creative Capital Visual Arts Grant. The artist received his bachelor’s degree from the Kansas City Art Institute, and went on to earn his MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 2005, the Scottsdale Public Art expanded its commitment to temporary projects, which allow for short-term exhibitions that connect to the local community and its activities. Newport’s project represents an opportunity to support an internationally-recognized Arizona artist in an innovative performance work.

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