Working in a number of media including painting, sculpture, video and photography, his art is conceptually oriented, and generally concerned with issues of consciousness.
Since 2009 Marr has worked with sugar as a medium. From 1999 he made several bodies of work in painting and photo collage. When he moved to Berlin in 2007 Marr began making video works and completed two series entailed Meditations and Now, Then. “The move to Berlin in 2007 revolutionised my practice completely. I shifted from making subjective art to objective art, or my work stopped being only about how I saw things personally, to a more expanded/shared view of how things are seen by people” says Marr.
In the ongoing series entitled “Attachment: a condition of being”, Marr explores and expands on themes of desire. He argues that the common notion of desire being mostly seen as sexual can be expanded on to seeing desire as “even a tree needing water has its roots reach down further and further into the ground searching for ever more volumes of water in its desire to grow”. Marr states “The desire for happiness, the desire for security, wellbeing, respect and even enlighten- ment are all equal to the desire for sexual acts. It may be a thought of as a stretch to think that a priest, a heroin addict and horny person all share the same energy of desire, but its a worthy stretch to allow our minds to accept this. I find as a person we are all yearning for that feeling of coming home, that release, no matter what road we are taking.” So Marr see’s his sugar objects as a body of signs and symbols pointing toward a more unified idea of desire and essentially an acceptance of being human.
Marr speaks of “the predicament of being human” alluding to the difficulties that our society places on us in order to be a decent person there is a kind of tightrope act with all kinds of ob- stacles/desires to be avoided, which is basically futile. “Our cultural stage of development seams to be near to breaking point. Its uncertain how much longer things can go on as they are and I think its up to each and every person to help themselves and help others in this fragmented yet connected new way of life” says Marr. “The pressures and expectations of modern life are so im- mense even before social media came along, and now the bar is set so high for what are mostly empty pursuits. We are not satisfied by being famous or getting rich or staying young and yet even louder now are these themes being trumpeted by the majority as aims to pure and endless joy. How far out of our way do we have to go before we start for home again?”
(Taken from the interview: Joseph asks Marr No. 7)
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