Mark Leckey, The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things (2013), via Art Observed

British artist Mark Leckey has brought a dense, timely exhibition to bear on the second and third floors of MoMA PS1 this month, as the artist’s first comprehensive U.S. survey brings a range of perspectives on the pace and content of a digitized life.  Questioning and playfully subverting the varied symbolic systems and technological structures that facilitate the landscape of modern life, Leckey’s exhibition is a fitting opening note of 2017, challenging hierarchies of power and image-making in a time when the consistency and reliability of information has become an increasingly troubled subject.

Mark Leckey, GreenScreenRefrigerator (2008-2016), via Art Observed

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The shortlist for the 2016 Hugo Boss Prize has been announced, with Tania Bruguera, Mark Leckey, Ralph Lemon, Laura Owens, Wael Shawky and Anicka Yi making the list of honorees.  The winner announcement and ceremony will take place in October of 2016, and will give the winning artist an exhibition at the Guggenheim. (more…)

‪‬Turner Prize winning artist Mark Leckey to release audio from video piece ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ (1999) on vinyl May 21, with audio from GreenScreenRefridgerator on the B side

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‘Mark Leckey in the Long Tail,’ Amy C. Elliott © 2009

Last weekend was the fifth performance in the Museum of Modern Art’s Performance Exhibition Series.  British artist Mark Leckey, who won the Turner Prize last year, gave the North American premier of ‘Mark Leckey in the Long Tail,’ described as ‘part lecture, part monologue, and part living sculpture.’ The Long Tail is an idea originally described by Wired’s Chris Anderson, which explains business and broadcast distribution adhering to a 20-80 Pareto curve, with the top 20% of items vastly more popular.  As the Internet disseminates media and corporate hegemony, countless niches have opened up and been made readily accessible to consumers. Companies like Amazon.com and Netflix are able to offer more items at lesser volumes.  Those niche interests represent the Long Tail.

Leckey’s talk applied the theory of the Long Tail to his own research of images. Beginning with a photo of a Felix the Cat sculpture in an NBC studio, Leckey explained how he was able to discover the origins of the photo and the meaning behind its mise-en-scène through exploring varied, and often quite small, communities online.

Performance 5: Mark Leckey [MoMA]
Mark Leckey [Gavin Brown’s Enterprise]
The Long Tail [Wired]
Interview with Mark Leckey [Rhizome]
Mark Lecky in the Long Tail at MoMA [ArtReview]
Mark Leckey Wags the Long Tail [Artinfo]
Mark Leckey in a Long Tail World [Frieze]
Arts Watch [The Lowdown]
An American Tail [ArtForum]
Mark Leckey wins UK’s 2008 Turner Prize [ArtObserved]

‘Mark Leckey in the Long Tail,’ courtesy Amy C. Elliott © 2009

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