Mallory Nanny reviews Mark Leckey's 'SEE, WE ASSEMBLE' at Serpentine Gallery, London

08/06/2011

Mark Leckey | SEE, WE ASSEMBLE | Serpentine Gallery, London
Review by Mallory Nanny for Aesthetica Magazine Blog

Turner Prize winner of 2008, Mark Leckey, currently hosts an exhibition entitled SEE, WE ASSEMBLE, at the Serpentine Gallery until 26 June. Upon entering the first gallery, we are introduced with the main objectives of the exhibition, products of Fiorucci, Henry Moore, and Samsung, as well as how each corresponds with the following stages of time: Past, Past and Present, and Future. Although the artist claims that the former subjects have impacted him in one way or another, he portrays a popular commodity of each in the tradition of advertising; thus bridging the gap between high culture and mass media almost immediately. Leckey incorporates sculpture, sound, film and performance equally throughout the exhibition to give the viewer a particularly unique visual and audio experience in post modernist art.

Leckey conceptualizes the past and present through his 'performance' piece entitled Sound Systems, an on-going project since 2001. In the central space of the gallery, a tall bronze sculpture by Henry Moore faces a large stack of speakers, which appear to mimic the sculpture in terms of height and verticality. It seems as if Leckey has purported to match the present with the elegance of the past, as the arrangement of the erected sculptures assume an authoritative presence in the otherwise, empty gallery. The only other piece exhibited is a small poster that functions to inform visitors of the upcoming dates of performances, for the sound art changes week to week. The performance aspect of Sound Systems relies on the sound emanating from the speakers that aims to elicit a response from the Moore sculpture. The sound I experienced was... [read the full article on the Aesthetica Magazine Blog].

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Image: Mark Leckey: Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, London (19 May – 26 June 2011) © 2011 Mark Blower.

Mark Leckey SEE, WE ASSEMBLE continues until 26 June 2011 at serpentinegallery.org.

Mallory Nanny is a candidate for the MA in Art History at Richmond the American International University in London.

Aesthetica engages with contemporary art, contextualising it within the larger cultural framework. For further information, please visit the Aesthetica Magazine website.

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