He obtained a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1990 and an MSc from MIT in 2001 and attended the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam from 1999-2001. His works have been shown in group and solo exhibitions in Europe and elsewhere.
Bain's videos are largely based around advanced digital editing techniques that achieve a variety of effects, from those of his early works, which are reminiscent of 1970's image-processed video, to later pieces that use high-speed digital videography and lapse imaging to alter footage filmed or found by the artist. The images depicted in the videos are intermittently sped up, slowed down, and repeated, highlighting the spatial and temporal relationships between bodies and objects in motion. There is a close but subtle relationship between the video sound and image, which Bain achieves by using the audio signal itself to edit the visual images, making them quiver, shake or move with uncanny smoothness in relation to the sound. Architectural form is also central to Bain's training and practice, as he creates, among other projects, large-scale audio sculptures by connecting oscillators to buildings -- in order to make them tremble.
Copies of the works of
Mark Bain can be purchased and rented for exhibition in
Montevideo.