Mark Leckey - As Above, So Below

Exhibition catalogue for Mark Leckey: As Above, So Below, presented at Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation Galeries Lafayette, Paris (April – 20 July 2025).

Mark Leckey (born 1964) is a British contemporary artist, known for his innovative work at the intersection of video, sound and popular culture, including punk subculture.

The works on display revisit extraordinary encounters and experiences lived by the artist, during which he was disoriented by the intensity of the emotions he felt.

The title As Above So Below is borrowed from the Emerald Tablet, a foundational text of Western alchemical art, traces of which date back to between the 7th and 9th centuries. This expression implies a constant relationship between the cosmos and the earthly world, between the animate and the inanimate, between the visible and the invisible.

Mark Leckey seeks to elevate the everyday in his works, showing how music, dance or, more broadly, the city can be vehicles for extraordinary experiences. A bridge, a bus stop, road safety advertisements, street lamps or an amusement park become, through his eyes, portals leading to other realms.

Fascinated by the Middle Ages, the artist also draws heavily on the iconography of that period. In this way, our era reminds him of medieval animist thought, whilst our use of smartphones and artificial intelligence transforms the objects around us into living beings.