marc...
I am an artist living and working in Edmonton, Alberta. My print and installation works have been exhibited across Canada as well as internationally: in Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Slovenia, Thailand, and The UK. I was co-founder of the Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists (SNAP) and remain an important contributor to the arts community of Edmonton and Alberta. The Alberta Foundation for the Arts collects my work as well as the Canada Council Art Bank and several corporate and private collections both in Canada and Internationally.
I have come to regard my work as a visual exploration on the theme of Cultural Adaptation. If you consider the idea that culture is grounded/embedded in language and cuisine, then what I am attempting to do is explore aspects of cultural adaptation. What I am doing through my research is exploring aspects of cultural adaptation through a process of narrative documentation, a kind of investigation of local cuisine in the images, prints and multimedia works I develop as a result. The conduit for my research is conversation, through encounters centered on food and the kitchen I engage people. I have observed that the very process of engaging people over food and struggling with language breaks down barriers, as a result our problems and worries seem to melt away and they are replaced by a love of conversation, food and drink. My process inevitably involves my aesthetic sensibility and I begin by making choices about the location and the site for the research. The ability to be completely objective is enhanced by the alien environment and this is why the foreign locations coupled with, at times, uncomfortable surroundings and unfamiliar surroundings ultimately allows this process to yield such interesting and engaging work.
M. Siegner, 2012g work.
M. Siegner, October 30, 2012