Mark Lewis

Mark Lewis’s films are remarkable not only for their rich and highly seductive qualities, but also for their extraordinary ability to undermine those characteristics that define mainstream and avant-garde cinema. Through subtle reference to classical motifs and genres, Lewis draws parallels between the film and art worlds and suggests that the evolution of film and technology are intrinsically linked to other visual cultures. This book is published to mark the completion of his most recent film, Rear Projection, a major new piece commissioned by FACT (the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in partnership with the British Film Institute and Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville. This new work documents a significant shift in Lewis’s practice. Glamorous locations and actors have been replaced with observations of more everyday situations, actions and places. In Rear Projection, Lewis has created a portrait of the actress Molly Parker which is superimposed against the backdrop of a bleak, Canadian landscape through the (now outmoded) method of back projection. Featuring stills and location shots from a number of Mark Lewis’s recent films, this book also includes essays by Philippe-Alain Michaud, Laura Mulvey and Michael Rush which place Lewis’s practice in a wider historical context and highlight a number of artists and filmmakers who have influenced him.