Last night we turned up to our Monday Night guest lecture a few minutes later than usual, and on walking through the doors of the lecture theatre wondered why it was noticeably busier than usual. It took the sight of a rather bearded fellow at the front to realise that it was Mark Leckey, winner of the 2008 Turner Prize, that was to be speaking to us that night. I was apprehensive at first, I'd always thought Runa Islam was the deserved winner of the 2008 prize and remembered not quite engaging with Leckey's installation of films at the time. Over the course of the evening I was to be proved wrong somewhat, and actually left liking the man himself and appreciating his work in a whole new light. The talk he gave was basically a summary of his artistic career so far, from his inclusion in the New Contemporaries exhibition whilst still a student at the end of the 80s, through to the beginning of his video work using found footage, which followed a period of not making art and distancing himself from an art world he felt increasingly disillusioned with. His first notable video work, Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, was an homage to various subcultures and the joint euphoria of music, in particular dance and rave.
He made work related to these themes for a few years, but what really interested me was a film he made in 2004 and that was displayed in his winning Turner Prize exhibition. Entitled Made in 'Eaven, it consisted of a camera panning around Jeff Koons' famous rabbit sculpture, his circling it and zooming in and out of the reflections of his empty flat. Although projected as a 16mm film you soon realise the impossibility of it - there is no reflection of a camera recording it - which reveals the true nature of the film as being completely computer generated. Mark Leckey has explained of his fascination with the sculpture that "I like the idea of something that's almost inhuman in its perfection, like Bunny. It's as if it just appeared in the world, as if Koons just imagined it and it appeared" and that is what he is attempting to address in his film, creating something tangible yet impossible. Something he talked about was his inability to fully appreciate or engage with objects in real life, he claimed he needs to see them on a screen, part of the culture of computers and the internet, which has led him not only to his investigations into the 'long tail' theory for the internet, but also, it would seem, a growing disillusionment with the art world (again) and his purpose as an artist. After a short Q & A he concluded that perhaps making a cult would be the only true form of art left. Perhaps this was a just a humourous remark to conclude the evening, but his thoughts on the art world and his ideas about the way we receive and read images left me leaving the theatre with something to think worth thinking about.
He made work related to these themes for a few years, but what really interested me was a film he made in 2004 and that was displayed in his winning Turner Prize exhibition. Entitled Made in 'Eaven, it consisted of a camera panning around Jeff Koons' famous rabbit sculpture, his circling it and zooming in and out of the reflections of his empty flat. Although projected as a 16mm film you soon realise the impossibility of it - there is no reflection of a camera recording it - which reveals the true nature of the film as being completely computer generated. Mark Leckey has explained of his fascination with the sculpture that "I like the idea of something that's almost inhuman in its perfection, like Bunny. It's as if it just appeared in the world, as if Koons just imagined it and it appeared" and that is what he is attempting to address in his film, creating something tangible yet impossible. Something he talked about was his inability to fully appreciate or engage with objects in real life, he claimed he needs to see them on a screen, part of the culture of computers and the internet, which has led him not only to his investigations into the 'long tail' theory for the internet, but also, it would seem, a growing disillusionment with the art world (again) and his purpose as an artist. After a short Q & A he concluded that perhaps making a cult would be the only true form of art left. Perhaps this was a just a humourous remark to conclude the evening, but his thoughts on the art world and his ideas about the way we receive and read images left me leaving the theatre with something to think worth thinking about.
Made In 'Eaven - a really bad clip of the film installed as a 16mm projection.
Worth reading, Mark Leckey discussing his reaction to winning the Turner Prize and thoughts on how the media receives contemporary art.
Worth reading, Mark Leckey discussing his reaction to winning the Turner Prize and thoughts on how the media receives contemporary art.
