Mark Leckey

Mark Leckey’s work revolves around the advancement of technology and its impact on culture. Particularly the transition from analogue to digital equipment. He’s worked across a wide range of mediums, including video and performance. He often explores the relationship between ourselves and a wider collective consciousness, examining obscure aspects of British culture such as Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999) a film about trace dance in nightclubs from the 70s-90s. Another film of his Dream English Kid (2015) explores the connection between our memories and the internet; he recreates memories from his childhood using imagery he’s found online. This came about after he found a video of the concert he attended as a child.

To me it seems that Leckey’s work explores the folk art of the late 20th and 21st century, his use of found things both physical and digital and the way he curates them makes them feel to me like a contemporary cabinet of curiosity. A snapshot into the mundane yet extraordinary lives we have today.

“The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things explores the tenuous boundaries between the virtual and real worlds. As modern technology becomes ever more sophisticated and pervasive, objects communicate with us: phones talk back, refrigerators suggest recipes and websites anticipate our desires. This exhibition explores the concept of techno-atavism, whereby advanced technology returns us to the beliefs of our ancestral past. Through a conceptual assemblage of archaeological artefacts, contemporary artworks and visionary machines, Mark Leckey creates a network of objects – communicating, talking to one another and, implicitly, looking back at us.” — Aesthetica Magazine

The idea that advances in technology and the effect that has on the world returns us to more ancient belief systems is very relevant to my practice. I think that allowing more technology to enter my future could be helpful in world-building and also I need to stop seeing it as some untouchable realm, we’ll be there pretty soon given the rate at which the climate is changing

Sources: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/mark-leckey-the-universal-addressability-of-dumb-things-at-nottingham-contemporary/ https://frieze.com/article/universal-addressability-dumb-things https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/leckey-dream-english-kid-1964-1999-ad-t14666 https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/mark-leckey-see-we-assemble https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1672?