Sodium Lights is an installation that uses repurposed low-pressure sodium streetlights of the kind phased out across the UK in the 1990s. The colour of the light overwhelms the space and has the effect of rendering the space otherworldly. Sited in Grundy’s Gallery 1, visitors must journey through the space to access Grundy’s other galleries. In doing so Leckey’s work takes on the atmosphere of a subway or underpass, sites of transition that carry a myriad of associations within the popular imagination.
Mark Leckey (born 1964, Birkenhead), is a contemporary artist working with a variety of media including film, sound, sculpture and performance. His work explores the relationship between popular culture and technology and explores the subjects of anxiety, class and nostalgia. In 2008 he won the Turner Prize for his exhibition Industrial Light and Magic and has had recent solo exhibitions at CABINET Gallery, London and Tate Britain. Mark Leckey last exhibited at Grundy Art Gallery in 2016 with his exhibition, This Kolossal Cat, That Massive MOG.