- Describe in detail the work that this company or artist makes: The artist explores ideas of youth, class, memory and nostalgia. This particular piece considers memories, social history, subcultures, experiences and technology. In a large gallery space at the Tate Britain, a life size replica of a bridge on a section of the M53, a copy of a motorway flyover close to his childhood home, specifically north west of England near Liverpool. The artist communicates ideas about how technology makes our attention distributed and also how it acts like a bridge, across time. Technology’s ability to call up anytime anyplace and for us to inhabit it. There are large scale projected videos – “Fiorucci made me hardcore” 1990 and dream english kid 1964-1999 AD 2015, pieces previously made by Lecky and reused in this work. using old and new video footage a sound and light experience is created. “O’ magic power of bleakness” evolved from his film (video) “Dream english kid” through which he was attempting to remake his memoire. The bridge clearly relates to the theme of nostalgia, admitting it worked as a device, built in 1968 as a new modernist emblem of the future. The bridge once worked as a promise of Britain surging into the future and technology but later was seen more as a dystopian ruin. Lecky connects his own history with social history, the projected video of his ‘memoire’ under a bridge that represented times in social history: a fantasy of nuclear winter, then in the 90s rebranded to represent the taking of Britain back to swinging 60s and it’s prime.
context of the artist or company’s work:
- What context is this work coming out of? Living through so many technological advancements and experiences of being outside of a major city, English/British nationalities seeming to represent different things, coming from Birkenhead, Wirral a place the artist felt was nostalgic for Britain in a time when it felt like the British had already experienced their peak.
- What do you think are the key preoccupations in the work they make? Preoccupation with nostalgia and his own memories as well as technology, how it affects us now and the hope it gave Britain throughout different periods in his life.
- What do you think they are exploring/testing in their work? The personal interwoven with the social historical events. The work was an opportunity for an exorcism or attempt to rid self of negative thoughts/memories. An experience through time with music, tv adverts and old film footage.
- Is it predominately to do with form or content or a combination? A combination, the piece relies on both the content of the videos that were previously made and projected as well as the form in a gallery space and the use of the replica bridge.
- What methodologies and performance –making strategies do they employ in their work? Mixed media, large scale projections, imposing set pieces, multiple screens, old and new footage, music/sound.
- Why is this artist or company’s work relevant to the work you are making/wanting to make? Transforming a space, nostalgia as a dangerous thing, attention on pop culture and social history. His video’s projected through the piece used collaged tape footage from the 70s, 80s and 90s underground dance scene in the UK which is related to the influence of drugs on creativity especially during social history, psychedelic rock music in the 60s onwards.
- How do you plan to use this artist’s or company’s work to inform and develop your own work? I intend to inform my own work through use of similar methods to Mark Lecky, collaging of old and new footage, projections and set pieces that provoke atmosphere in a room as well as being informed by social historical contexts.
- How does your work develop, expand and respond to the thinking behind the artist’s or company’s work? I feel that the themes of anxiety and nostalgia repeatedly referenced in Lecky’s work are very relevant to the subject I am exploring through my piece.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-leckey-6877/introducing-mark-leckey
Practice-based Research Project 