Mark Boot studied sculpture at De Montfort University, where he developed his interest in inverted and suspended sculptures after seeing Antonio Gaudi's funicular structures.  Since then his work has explored the relationship between structure, space and light.   

The film works by Mark Boot are  reminiscent of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's experience with light and synthetic materials at the Bauhaus in the 1920's.  The Bauhaus was driven by a utopian vision of a world bettered by design and arts.  This dream was shattered by the rise of Nazism during the thirties and the Bauhaus exported its ambitions to the USA.

Every Combination of White; Red; Green; Blue; Off:  From Three Programmed Lights (2007) is a homage to Sol LeWitt.  It consists of one floor piece consisting of five interlocking light modulating structures, and three coloured spotlights.  The concentric proportions enable coloured light and shadow to be modulated within the sculptures.

"Boot's films are apparently a paean to this better age when ideals still held sway and their visual form was still seductive enough to be called beautiful.  But they are a sequence of tides of brightness that suggest more than a simple formal play of light and dark".   Hugo Worth.  Leicester City Gallery

Post Graduation
In 1992 I established a workshop designing and constructing surreal musical instruments influenced by experimental instrument makers such as Harry Partch and a variety of ethnic sources. In 1997 I performed with several of my own instruments in the Fragments Art festival at the Phoenix Arts Centre in Leicester.

In November 2001 I joined the Knighton Lane Artists Group in Leicester. I spent the last two years as a director and was actively involved in the promotion of Open Studio events and Annual Exhibitions. In 2005 I established the Wright Boot studio with the painter Paul Wright.


Exhibitions

International
Optica International Festival Of Video Art, 2008 Gujon 6th-8th Nov, Paris Oct 4th, Madrid Oct 16th-18th
Olympolis Project 2008, Katerini, Greece  12th-20th July 2008

National

Modern Artists Gallery Berkshire Ongoing
20th Leicester City Gallery Annual Open, November 2008- January 2009
Artober, Leicester Phoenix Arts, 13th-28th October 2007
ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries London, 15th-25th November 2007
National Architecture Week 2007 , Three Ways of Seeing, Leicester -  18th -23rd June 2007
Richard Attenborough Centre, Leicester University, Group show, 2nd Sept – 3rd Oct 2006
Nottingham City Museum and Art Gallery Annual Open 10th December 2005 - 8th January 2006
18th Leicester City Gallery Annual Open, 14th Nov 2005 – 5th Jan 2006
LCB Depot Video Space, Leicester, December 2005
17th Leicester City Gallery Annual Open 15th November 2004 – 08th January 2005
Nottingham City Museum and Art Gallery Annual Open, 20th November – 5th December 2004
Knighton Lane Artists Group 22nd Annual Exhibition, Leicester City Art Gallery September 2004.
Derby City Museum and Art Gallery Annual Open Exhibition 15th Nov 2003 – 4th Jan 2004
Knighton Lane Artists Group 21st Annual Exhibition, September 2003.
14th Leicester City Gallery Annual Open 2002, November 2002
Nottingham City Museum and Art Gallery Annual Open, October 2002
Knighton Lane Artists Group 20th Annual Exhibition, June 2002

CommissionsIn 2006 

I completed a joint commission for the Leicester Health Authority in the new Braunstone Health and Social Care Building designed by Alan Short Architects. This commission involved two site-specific murals and seven perspex sculptures illuminated by coloured fibre-optic lights.