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| MARK LECKEY |
| 07/02/19 - 24/02/19 |
| Ahead
of his major exhibition at Tate Britain later in the year, Mark Leckey
heads north for a solo show here at OUTPUT gallery in Liverpool City
Centre. Leckey (b. Birkenhead) won the Turner Prize in 2008 and has
exhibited internationally. He studied in Newcastle and currently lives
and works in London. This exhibition presents Leckey’s 2001 film ‘We Are Untitled’ (Courtesy the Artist and Cabinet, London). Made after his renowned film ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore,’ Leckey had wanted to use his own imagery instead of more found footage. ‘We Are Untitled' documents a party in the artist’s flat on Windmill St, resulting in part-music video and part-time capsule. He created something he could bury and look back on in twenty years to access his own nostalgia. |
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| How does it feel watching back footage like this from 20 years ago? It feels really weird. The reason I made it was to create a kind of time-capsule, that I could open in twenty years time with the hope that it would spark a nostalgic quiver. I made it in 2001 so thats eighteen years ago, eighteen years before 2001 was 1983, so its weird on that level. It’s a record of a time and a place, of a moment and I wanted it to be a very particular moment. At the time I was into the UK Garage scene, so thats where it’s coming from. Do you think artists need to be in London to make a living? When I made ‘We Are Untitled” in that flat, I was signing on and getting housing benefit, the place I’d been in before was a squat, I was in a squat after finishing college for which I'd received a full-grant. All those securities have now gone. Artists come to London, out of the colleges there, to access the networks and galleries but how do you manage to actually live without those securities? So to make an actual living as a young artist in London seems nigh impossible to me. Those that do, without any support, are dead up against it and respect to them. The YBA’s were a by-product of full-grants, squatting rights, and Social Security cheques. Economics determine what art gets made and by whom. I really hope that artists can make a living outside London, I don’t like that everything revolves around the Capitol. From what I’ve seen in Liverpool there is a lot going on, art-wise, and its building. What can we expect from your upcoming show at Tate Britain? You can expect Fairies and Scallies under a Motorway bridge. You can expect music, and lights and, unexpectedly for me, a scripted play with actors. |
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