Image:Mark Leckey Untitled 2003 Three parts, dimensions variable: Little Richard, Prince Albert, Pouter Courtesy of the artist and Cabinet Gallery, London © 2011 Mark Leckey
19th May – 26th June 2011
London-based artist Mark Leckey has his first solo show in a UK public institution. It will show major works from Leckey’s multi-disciplinary practice, which encompasses sculpture, sound, film and performance and addresses themes of human desire and transformation.
Live performances
As part of the exhibition Leckey will present four live evening performances of BigBoxStatueAction, designed specifically to suit the unique acoustic qualities of the Serpentine Gallery.
Leckey’s best-known works feature meticulously sourced and reconfigured archive footage and the exhibition will include the artist’s seminal film work on the history of underground UK dance culture from the 1970s to the 1990s, Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, 1999.
A large-scale recent performance and film work entitled GreenScreen RefrigeratorAction, 2010 in which Leckey communicates with a ‘smart’ fridge, will be remade in the Gallery. In this work, Leckey explores the idea of being in constant communication with every aspect of our environment and the sense that all things have life imbued within them.
Image:Mark Leckey Sound System 2002 Sound system, amplifiers, speakers, turntables, record player, acetate record Courtesy of the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York © 2011 Mark Leckey Photograph: Adam Reich
The imposing installation BigBoxStatueAction, 2003-2011, positions one of Leckey’s Sound System sculptures, a tall stack of speakers, to face a large modernist sculpture. The speakers broadcast a specially created sound piece composed from sampled music and archive material, which attempts to elicit a response from the opposing sculpture.
Mark Leckey, born 1964, lives and works in London. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2008 and his work has been widely exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, in 2008 and at Le Consortium, Dijon, in 2007.
His performances have recently been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, Abrons’ Art Centre, New York; at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, both in 2009; and at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 2008.
Free Thursday Evening Performances of BigBoxStatueAcon
26 May, 2, 9, 16 June. Admittance Free. Booking essential
The Serpentine Gallery
Image:Mark Leckey GreenScreenRefrigerator 2010 Courtesy of the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York © 2011 Mark Leckey Photograph: Thomas Muller
