Delirium

“ Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui."

~ Emile M. Cioran'

de·lir·i·um (n)


1. A disordered state of the mental faculties resulting from disturbance of the functions of the brain, and characterized by incoherent speech, hallucinations, restlessness, and frenzied or maniacal excitement.

2. Uncontrollable excitement or emotion, as of a delirious person; frenzied rapture; wildly absurd thought or speech.

3. An Illiterate art exhibit from the wild mind and private collection of one of Denver's most celebrated photographer's, Mark Sink; featuring works by mentors, colleagues, friends, disciples and himself.

From Mark Sink:

I've been in a state of Delirium since I received a phone call while on location in New York in mid November ago, from Illiterate asking if I would create a show at their gallery in Denver two weeks later in on December 04.

Returning to Denver, I looked around my home and thought about the selected works I've collected over the course of my life that I still keep close around me. I saw a commonality among these selected images — an excited and sexually distraught staged fantasy. I found in the artists, a group of people who push the boundaries in visual stimulation and sexual stimulation, particularly through the lense of self analysis.  It became lucidly clear that I'm attracted to artists who speak through their work with a unique voice, a voice which communicates a strong identity, or at least a strong desire for one. To me, it's work with a personality recognizable even at a glimpse, across a chaotic room, or in some cases, a chaotic mind.

The process of elimination in chosing a body of work from my collection became a hunt for this state of Delirium. The resulting work exhibits a variety of media and processes both contemporary and vintage. The group of artists who make up the Delirium collection consist of my colleagues, mentors and emerging minds.

I hope that something somewhere in these odd photographs touches others like they continue to touch me, right down the center of the spine, with a tingling shudder of exctatic distortion. It's like that moment when you finish taking a pee.

Deliriously,

~Mark

The first wave of Delirium opens Dec. 4 at Illiterate (). The second wave hits on January 8.

Featuring works by:

Sabin Aell, Jason Appelton, Anne Arden McDonald, Cheryl Bailey, Eric Havelock Bailie, Mike Berg, Bryan Boettiger, David Brady, Don Carleno, Zabo Chabiland, Joe Clower, Clare Cornell, Scott Covert, Joel Dallenbach, Damaris Drummond, Michael Ensminger, Linda Elvira Piedra, Susan Evans, Radek Grosman, John Hallin, Allison Harvard, Kristen Hatgi, Brian Henderson, Susanne Junker, Wes Kennedy, Agnes Kunz, Lori Nix, Tamaki Obuchi, Jesus Polanco, Ron Pollard, Winter Prather, Mathew Rose, Mark Sink, Mindy Sink, Jeff Starr, Gary Sweeney, William Stockman, Katie Taft, Ruth Thorne Thomsen, Sylvie Tillmann, Harry Walters, Wesley Willis, David Zimmer