Mark
Mark


I am a nonbinary queer artist focusing on experimental video. My lens is youthful and curious, broken down into absurd collages of spontaneous language and fragmented imagery. My work examines the intangibility of memory, childhood, and sexuality. Transcending these constructs via playful curiosity allows me to provide an earnest and heartfelt analysis of the ephemeral.

My work falls under two different methodologies: Digital Diary Film and Playground Absurdism. Playground Absurdism is a term I created to describe my feature film work. It is an approach to filmmaking that is rooted in absurdist ideology and harnessed using the ethos of a child. Masked with silly plots and characters, time serves as a vessel for exploration of the imperfections, people and spaces I hold dear. It involves play and discovery as a way to carve out the ideas and visuals in my projects.

Digital diary film explores what it means to have human feelings in a digital world. The empty and droning AI-generated narrators act as vessels to explore love and loss and joy in the modern era. I use analog camcorder footage with intense post-processing to create footage that feels like a ghostly memory of the present.


I’ve been inspired largely by artists who invoke the feeling of “play” in their work. By my own definition, play is the act of giving into impulse with exaggerated mindfulness. Play also calls back to being a kid. It invokes spontaneity, but also delivers something that feels carefree and fun. Artists like Jodie Mack, Ryan Trecartin, and Sara Cwynar have all influenced me in this way.

Roland Barthes said that, “All the toys one commonly sees are essentially a microcosm of the adult world… Toys reveal the list of all the things the adult does not find unusual.” I consider my work in a similar way; I see an absurdity to the world around me… work, love, sex, language, etc. I simplify them as one does life into a toy. Except, I’m not creating for children, I’m creating for myself as means of mental digestion.


















smits.walt@gmail.com | @kookylemur