‘In The Offing’: Mark Leckey looks to the horizon in Margate

Taking its name from a maritime phrase that dates back to the early 17th century, a new group exhibition, ‘In The Offing’, organised by artist Mark Leckey and currently on show at the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, hints at what lies on the horizon, both physically and metaphorically. 

The phrase ‘in the offing’ refers to the area of sea just beyond the shoreline – look-outs on the shore would first catch sight of approaching ships when they were 'in the offing'. Leckey, who serves as both artist and editor, commissioned a series of emerging and established artists and musicians to make work that responded to this phrase, using the concept of a magazine editorial as his foundation to choreograph a multi-sensory mash-up that seamlessly blends moving image, sound, light and painting.

‘In the Offing’, devised by Mark Leckey

Leckey took inspiration both from Margate’s seaside location and its quirky reputation, exploring themes of past and future, dilapidation and reinvention, darkness and light. 

He says, ‘The offing is where the sea meets the land and the sky, Margate is where the contemporary meets the nostalgic, and music is where the popular meets the esoteric. Most of the artists in the show are musicians or artists for whom music and sound are central to their practice. The offing corresponds to the digital space that these artists all work in. They exist somewhere between two realms, asking the question: What is coming?’

Born in Liverpool in 1964, Leckey arrived in London in the 1990s, towards the tail end of the YBA movement. He has always been something of an outsider in the art world, despite winning the Turner Prize in 2008, and his work, which often displays a nostalgic bent, sits at the intersection of cultures, style, media and technology. 

His own offering for the show, Dazzledark, is a video referencing both Margate’s beach and its infamous promenade fairground, Dreamland. It’s a location that sits in sharp contrast to the Turner Contemporary’s minimalist box, and Leckey wanted the exhibition to have the feel of a gallery show intermingled with a fairground ride.
‘When planning the exhibition’s structure, I likened it to a fairground dark ride, travelling through a loop of changing videos, sounds and lights, with a start and end point that gets repeated throughout the day. Connected to the dark ride is a light space exhibiting paintings by Alessandro Raho, who uses the old technology of oil paint to portray the now. Similarly, airbrush artist Darren Horton’s mural captures the seaside legacy of depicting future or hyper-modern fantasies. Tracey Williams’ Lost at Sea Project documents synthetic creatures brought to shore with the tide. A consequence that will abide for a thousand years.’

A meditation on what the future might look like from different perspectives, Leckey’s labyrinthine show stands on the edge of the abyss, offering an unsettling reflection on the strange and uncertain times we currently live in.

‘In The Offing’ will be on show until 14 January at Turner Contemporary, Margate, turnercontemporary.org