Mark Leckey Made in ‘Eaven

Mark Leckey is a British contemporary artist, working with collage art, music and video. His found object art and video pieces, which incorporate themes of nostalgia and anxiety, and draw on elements of pop culture, span several videos. This week I visited the MOMA with the class and experienced his work.

Projected onto the wall was his piece Made in ‘Eaven. The piece revolves around an image of a stainless-steel bunny by artist Jeff Koons, which is apparently, one of the most coveted objects on the art market. The bunny sits on a pedestal in the center of an empty room which I didn’t know but is Leckey’s studio at 7 Windmill Street, London. As the piece plays we are brought in and out from the bunny with a series of pans and zooms. However, what I started to realize was that there was no camera present in the reflection. The video also seemed very smooth and unnatural almost like the movement was fake. That’s when I found out that the video is half fake.

Mark Leckey uses technology to his advantage in this piece. The bunny is not actually in his studio. I believe that he combines real footage and digital tools to create this piece. He essentially makes It feel like the bunny is actually present in his studio. The image is a digital fabrication transferred to 16mm film. The reason we do not see the camera in the reflection is because the bunny is digital. He reflects the areas of his room onto the bunny which makes It seem very realistic. He makes the viewers believe that all of the film is real and none of It is digital. It almost feels like magic.

I think that what he did for this film is great. The new world is all about technology and how it’s ever expanding. Combining real imagery with digital imagery is experimental in so many ways. He brought this art piece that a lot of people are familiar with into his home without actually bringing It into his home. He did It so well that It’s super convincing, so convincing in fact that he probably tried to convince himself that It was really there. Incorporating real imagery and digital imagery is the way of the future. A lot of people do It, especially in movies. I think he really nailed this piece by choosing to combine the digital world with the real world. If the camera was present in the reflection all of the magic present in this film would be gone for me. If It was possible for him to get the bunny in his studio, he could have filmed It and got rid of the camera digitally. However, I know that wasn’t possible so this takes It to the next level. I found this piece very interesting and encaptivating regardless of It being a single shot film of a bunny in someone’s studio. It’s the magic that is present in the film that really drew me in. As I read more about the piece I began to love It even more.