Mark Rautenbach

(b 1964South Africa. Lives and works in Cape Town)

Mark Rautenbach’s interdisciplinary practice involves knitting, public performance and craft-like studio work. He has alternately used the names of Mark Splendid and Mark Maria, and regularly returns to materials such as repurposed thread, paper and yarn.

For Rautenbach, the practice of knitting by hand sits outside of current economic rationale, expressing something that the pace of contemporary life and its functions cannot.

“It takes a lot of time, placing me in a liminal space,” he says. “Knitting expresses a deep care, a deep concern for a willingness or commitment to sit with things even when they are uncomfortable.” Rautenbach believes these kinds of time-consuming activities are essential and necessary aspects of being.”

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