Mark Leckey

Temple Magazine

The title As Above So Below comes from the Emerald Tablet. What draws you to these kinds of symbolic or esoteric ideas, and how do they connect to your work today? We noticed how important sound is in the show — how did you work with sound for this exhibition? And more generally, what role does sound play in your work?

Mark Leckey

The title — As Above, So Below. I’ve known that phrase for a long time. I came across it through alchemy. Not that I’ve really read alchemical texts, but I was interested in what that phrase meant. It’s a kind of pre-modern idea of the cosmos — that everything is connected, everything corresponds to something else. Like, a grain of sand and a star — they mirror each other. « To see the world in a grain of sand » William Blake said, I liked that idea …

I liked that idea for the show, because I knew it was going to be full of these correspondences. I wanted the works to echo each other, to have these resonances. And I wanted the show to feel magical. You step into it, and it’s like stepping into a spell.

Temple Magazine

And the sound in the exhibition, it’s a strong statement. How did you work with that for this exhibition?

Mark Leckey

I’ve always worked with sound. I like it just as much as I like working with images. Maybe even more sometimes. During the pandemic, I wasn’t making any visual work at all — I was just doing a show on this London radio station called NTS. I got more and more into making these mixes for NTS. And the more time I spent with music, the more I felt like it was giving me something that art wasn’t anymore. So I started focusing more on sound, letting it do what images no longer could for me.

In this show, the music kind of carries everything. The images are almost secondary. Not even music exactly — more like sound. The atmosphere. The sound builds the environment, and you step into that. It surrounds you. Then the images are animated by the sound — they come to life through it.

Temple Magazine

Could you talk about the bas relief — how did you produce it?

Mark Leckey

It’s 3D, like CGI. I asked a friend who does all my CGI work to build this city for me — but with all the perspective intentionally wrong. The geometry of it doesn’t follow the grid logic that 3D programs use, so it was very unfriendly to the software. It took him a long time, it was complicated to make. But once it was done, I thought it was so beautiful I didn’t want to keep it just as an image — I wanted to see it physically. So I made it into a relief. That way I could feel it too — Only I can feel it. You’re not allowed to, but I can just sneak off and touch it.

Temple Magazine

Some of the printed images in the show feel like digital collages — mixing styles, sometimes with a Minecraft-like aesthetic. Did you use AI to create any of these visuals?

Mark Leckey

Someone else mentioned Minecraft, but I wasn’t thinking of that. There are a few bits of AI. I use this tool called Topaz. It lets you upscale low-quality images, so you can take a shitty JPEG and suddenly the skin has all this insane detail. That blocky figure that feels like Minecraft, it actually comes from an old video game. I just really liked the image — this guy falling or floating — and I got obsessed. That’s how I work: I get obsessed with an image and then try to see it in as many different forms as possible. Like with the city — it starts online, just a JPEG, but that’s not enough. I want it to enter my world, to become more present.

Temple Magazine

So you collect a lot of images online — are you a kind of image collector?

Mark Leckey

I started out that way. But now I think everyone is. I recently heard someone say fashion today is basically just Pinterest. And that’s kind of how I work too — just following interest. Honestly, I feel less and less that the role of the artist is something special. It’s what everyone does now — collects images.

Temple Magazine

Do you think our relationship with technology is becoming more spiritual, even if we don’t always realize it?

Mark Leckey

I’d say yes. During the pandemic, I had this experience — it’s in one of my videos — I was walking through a park and suddenly I felt I’d entered something sacred. A divine experience. It made me start reading about theology, not just spirituality. And I thought — what’s happening to me? Am I starting to believe? Then I noticed more and more of this stuff popping up online. For a moment I thought, maybe it’s just another viral thing. Like when I grew a beard thinking it was a personal decision — and then realized everyone around me had a beard. So I doubted myself. But I do think there’s something like a viral spirituality happening right now.

And it makes sense. For a long time, I’ve tried to understand what the internet is — where it comes from, what it’s doing to us. There’s always been this idea that it would spiritualize us. It takes us out of the body, into an immaterial realm — which is where God is, right? So it pulls us away from material existence. That shift alone gives the experience a kind of spiritual quality. Even if we don’t realize it, I think we’re all more connected, and that connection also brings out something spiritual.

And without fully committing to the idea, I do feel more... in myself. I’ve kind of overcome my fear of death — not totally, but more than before. My fear used to be this childish one — the idea that I’d be eternally conscious, but completely alone. I don’t feel that anymore. And that’s a good shift. It’s a better way to wake up in the morning.

Temple Magazine

Could you imagine using AI in your work — not just as a tool, but as a collaborator, even like a spirit?

Mark Leckey

Yes. I mean, there’s a side of AI that I find really fascinating. I collect these grotesque AI-generated images I find on Instagram— Horrible, disturbing ones. I’m drawn to them because they feel blasphemous. That’s what fascinates me — the idea that something could repel me so much. It’s like they’re against nature. And normally, I’m very pro against nature — I’m anti-essentialism. Usually, the more we go against nature, the better things get.

But these images… they’re different. Maybe they’re still part of that — maybe they’re dissolving boundaries, breaking down hierarchies, freeing us from certain boxes. But they just look awful.