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Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Leckey has curated an exhibition that explores the magical world of new technology , as well as tracing its connections to the beliefs of our distant past .
Historical and contemporary works of art , videos , machines , archaeological artefacts and iconic objects , such as a giant inflatable cartoon figure of Felix the Cat ( the first image ever transmitted on TV ), inhabit an enchanted landscape in our galleries where objects seem to communicate with each other and with us .
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Leckey ' s exhibition reflects on a world where technology can bring inanimate “ things ” to life and where the real and the virtual co-exist . While we already live in a world where fridges talk to you , phones give you directions and websites predict what you want , by digitising objects , we can also make them “ disappear ” from the material world , re-emerging in any place or era . It seems we have , simultaneously , gone back to our ancestral past when ancient civilisations believed spirits inhabited objects , plants and animals . |
Leckey ' s theatre of “ things ” is presented in specially designed environments . Works by artists such as William Blake , Louise Bourgeois , Martin Creed , Richard Hamilton , Nicola Hicks , Jim Shaw and Tøyen are displayed alongside a medieval silver hand containing the bones of a saint , an electronic prosthetic hand that connects with Bluetooth , a bisected 3D model of Snoopy showing his internal organs , and many other treasures that all share connections . |
Cover Image : David Musgrave , Animal ( 1998 ). Courtesy Greengrassi , London . Photo : Marcus Leith . © the artist . |