Photo: still from Parade by Mark Leckey. © Mark Leckey.
Grabbing her best coat and making sure her tie was straight, Liza Laws paraded across Brighton to see have a look at a new installation
Parade, a new video installation by Mark Leckey is showing at Fabrica in Brighton until November 30.
Growing up amid the rave scene during the late 1980s and early 90s certainly shaped a colourful career for Mark Leckey. A well-established visual and musical artist, Parade was bound to be a remarkable exhibition.
Taking over at Fabrica, an alternative gallery that was formerly a church, Leckey was in force with his new installation. The public can drop in at any time to enjoy the show and what a show it is.
"Mark Leckey has always had a strong interest in subcultures, people that go against the grain, dress differently or who consider life as unconventional," said Rob Lamb, a volunteer at Fabrica.
You might feel as though you are on the set of the film ‘Morvern Callar’ as you enter the dark church. Film is projected from where the altar once was onto a cinema screen at the far end.
Bizarre images of the concepts of ‘Parade’, including parades of shops, the ‘Sunday best’ parading of models and subtler references to the pornographic magazine, rotate across the screen to a background of almost mantra-like music.
Photo: Soldier, Mark Leckey. © Mark Leckey.
Leckey is also in a band and he uses his music as background to his show. He makes his music from samples and enjoys using fragments, piecing them together to create sounds.
Focused on the Dandy era but brought into the 21st century, the venue is perfect for Leckey’s piece. The rhythmic, echoing footsteps of the Dandy as he walks down the years were eerily reminiscent of Lee Marvin’s footsteps of doom in the film Point Blank: The Dandy is moving towards us but what are his intentions?
The film is as intriguing as it is thought provoking, overflowing with historical and literary insinuations but beautifully balanced with a contemporary mixture of art, music and fashion.
The Dandy idolises his wardrobe almost to an extreme. One scene sees a hand massaging a shoe with great passion but without sexual connotation.
Leckey was thrown into the limelight with his 1999 video piece Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, a dream-like visual essay on the history of underground dance culture in the UK shown at the ICA.
Living and working in London, Leckey centres his work around sound system and video works that highlight his obsession marginalized youth cultures enriched by the history of art.
Parade was commissioned by The Film and Video Umbrella in association with the Brighton Photo Biennial.
