As far as I can see, Nottingham Contemporary is the most
daring, relevant and stylish gallery in the land. Hot on the heels of John
Newling's earthy geo-exhibition, Ecologies of Value, which featured balls made from mulch, plants
growing in a plastic shed, and living kale walking sticks, the NC has staged
an equally outré show by Mark Leckey, the Turner Prize
winning artist from Birkenhead.
Curating is to art what DJ-ing is to music
nowadays, and here Mark Leckey has assembled a seemingly disparate, but
actually tightly and cleverly themed collection of art. Some of these are obscure/
some by famous artists such as William Blake. Not one of the exhibits, or the
complex synergies between them is boring or mundane, however, which puts the actuality
of the collection at odds with its ponderous title. Leckey presents us with car wheels
without a car, an alimentary canal, flickering cine-camera footage, the sputnik
satellite, the death mask of William Blake, a leg being born by, or swallowed
up by a sanitised vagina; and then there is the room in which the erect Cerne Abbas giant and hanging projectors flicker noisily under florescent
lights. All immediately interesting and thought provoking.
What thoughts does it provoke? What themes lie beneath this
fizzing, exuberant collection of unique but interconnected art?
That's for you, the viewer, to work out. Go see it before it finishes. Bunk off work, miss your classes, get somebody to pick up the kids,
beg, borrow or steal the fare to Nottingham
. . . Do what it takes - just go.
You have until 30th of June.
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