Station Stop (S-Bahn Ring, Ostkreutz) Maggie Stark, 2021. Video stills, digital print.
The paradox of time — that we perceive it as both continuous and transitory — is a recurring theme in Maggie Stark’s multimedia work. In this exhibition of new pieces, she uses Boston’s Mattapan Trolley and Berlin’s S-Bahn-Ring as a conceptual framework for further exploration of that theme.
Stark often rides the Mattapan Trolley and walks in Cedar Grove Cemetery, which the trolley passes through. Filming from within the cemetery as well as on the trolley, she juxtaposes the permanence of gravestones with the perpetual motion of the trolley. On a recent stay in Berlin, she became fascinated with the S-Bahn-Ring that circles the city in one-hour loops. Echoing a clock’s movements for the duration of one complete rotation, Stark filmed out the window of the train, capturing passengers’ fleeting gestures against the fixed architecture of the stations. These video clips from Boston and Berlin provide the source material for her current videos, photographs and sculptures.