ONE SMALL SEED MAGAZINE Issue #29 Digital 04 THE BEST OF | Page 53

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toryteller, future-gazer, social analyst and political advisor: Mark Whalen (kill pixie) is more than just an artist. Each
of his paintings tells a story; some of things passed, some of
those to come. Their message points towards dynamic new
strategies necessary for survival in the manmade era. With
a wicked sense of humour and an uninhibited imagination
to foot, kill pixie imparts his sparkling pearls of wisdom
through a channel of magnified psychedelic future-visions
viewed through an ice-cream-coloured kaleidoscope. As
SARAH JAYNE FELL discovers, that – to Mark Whalen – is
exactly what his artworks are.

Mark Whalen is an Australian
artist living in the cultural
hub of Los Angeles. Originally
working on the streets of Sydney as a graffiti writer with
the street name ‘kill pixie’, he
moved to LA in 2008 to further his career in the nucleus
of what has fast become the
contemporary Western art
scene. Now that kill pixie no
longer spraypaints walls, he
works as a full-time fine artist
under the title ‘Mark Whalen
(kill pixie)’. And in the short
space of time since changing
his trade, he’s been named
Sydney’s ‘Best Visual Artist’ at
the inaugural Sydney Music,
Art and Culture Awards and
has exhibited across the world,
from his native city to London,
Berlin and the States. This
26-year-old is certainly climbing high on the international
hot list of young artists to keep
an eye on.
Since his transition from street
to fine art, Mark’s newly adopted medium of choice is ink,
acrylic and gouache on paper,
mounted on wood and sealed
with resin. His colour palette
is made up of bubblegum and

ice-cream. His characters are
androgynous and masked, some
part animal, part machine.
Mark is influenced by folk art
and his work is largely driven
by narrative. Some paintings
are tales of complex human
behaviour, mirrored in a style
that is equally intricate. Others
predict what the future holds
for mankind. Not simply alluding to our inevitable doom,
however, but directing us
towards innovative survival
strategies, their intention is
didactic as well as descriptive.
And with a wit that could cut
through solid brick, Mark’s
work is as side-splittingly entertaining as it is sharply incisive.
The themes Mark deals with
range from mass consumption
and economy-driven narratives
to self-exploration and discovery, human identity, space and
technology. In his latest series,
masked humanoid characters
wallow in celestial pools and
spas in a futuristic bathhouse
where gravity has no meaning.
Narratives point to the absurdity of excess as ice-creams and
bear-headed slippers are mass
produced and served to the

humanoids on shiny platters,
while characters worship gambling and the almighty dollar.
“The masks represent different
people,” Mark explains. They
allude to the complexities of
“human identity and different
personalities” as well as pointing to “people’s hidden agendas”.
They also make it difficult to
distinguish whether his characters are male or female; servant or master; animal, human
or machine; or some strange
hybrid combination. Devoid of
recognisable identities, the characters lose all sense of autonomy making them puppet-like
and robotic, beyond all sense of
rationality or self-control. Suddenly the scenes are elevated to
a disconcerting level of ambiguity as their narratives become
as ungrounded as the buoyant
figures suspended in water, and
all moral bearings are lost.
Mark’s outlook is neither
negative nor positive, however,
but perhaps that of a realist looking for creative solutions rather than dwelling on
problems. “My works represent
the universal human struggle
between our antagonistic instincts for freedom and control
in the contemporary era,” Mark
relates. There is also a marked
sense of “the indomitable spirits
of creativity, resistance, and
the power of adaptation” among
the human race, which seems
to reflect his own pragmatic
outlook.

In ‘Ceremonies’ a giant animal
head with a deity-like semblance is the subject of bizarre
sacrificial offerings (from
suicide to gifts of shoes). Mark
offers his impetus for the work,
saying: “The animals’ heads
represent a god-like structure.
In this particular piece they
are presenting an offering to
this statue. It’s another piece
that shows our antagonistic
instincts and search for higher
power – with a humorous
twist.”
The intricacy in Whalen’s work
extends from its narrative element to its detailed patterning,
another aspect of his painting
that draws on traditional folk
art. Surfaces of objects are
made up of smaller objects, adding purely visual complexity
as well as layer upon layer of
symbolism that could leave you
scrutinising one single image
for ages. The overall effect is
what Mark describes as “the
impression of a kaleidoscope
opening up into ever more
intricate worlds”; worlds made
up of geometric shapes and
bubblegum colours, futuristic
humanoids, ice-creams, dollar
bills and animal heads. “What’s
up with the ice-cream?” I ask
him, “Some kind of fetish?”
“Maybe,” he laughs, “ice-creams
are awesome!”

www.killpixie.net
Mark Whalen (kill pixie) is currently showing his solo exhibition, Supreme Beings,
at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in
Berlin.