Artist Portrait. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
Lyken in front of his mural inside Recoat Gallery created during his Recoat residency.
Photo Courtesy of Style Scanner
Artist Portrait. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
Lyken in front of his mural inside Recoat Gallery created during his Recoat residency.
Photo Courtesy of Style Scanner
Mark Lyken. The Loneliness Machines. Paintings.
All work created by Lyken in the space during his Recoat Gallery residency.
All work Acrylic, Gesso, Spraypaint, Ink & Pencil on Canvas. 2012.
Images Courtesy of Mateusz Sleczka.
Remaining Work Available from Recoat Here.
360 Moveable Panorama. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
Click the Image & Move through the full 360 Degrees of The Loneliness Machines Exhibition.
All work created by Lyken in the space during his Recoat Gallery residency.
Panorama Courtesy of FiST.
Remaining Work Available from Recoat Here.
Exhibition Soundtrack. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
This track was composed & recorded by Lyken in the space during his Recoat Gallery residency & is released through Gamma Proforma.
Available for FREE Download Here:
www.gammaproforma.com/lonelinessmachines
Opening Night. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
All work conceived & created during Lyken’s Recoat residency.
Thanks to everyone who came down & partied with us at Recoat on the opening night.
Thanks to Recoat Gallery, Mateusz Sleczka for Camerawork, the Landsdowne Bar for Sponsoring & laying on food. To Camille Lorigo and Hanne Wyllie for baking the Social Network & TXT Speak Cookies and to all the Photographers (below) who captured the night.
Full Photosets:
Short Film. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
Lyken made the short film “Sisyphus_73 Invited you to like his page” during his Recoat residency which formed part of the Installation.
The “Sisyphus_73 has invited you to like his page” Short Film/endless walk cycle is me poking fun at my own image & the personal branding we employ in uploading the very best (& sometimes utterly misleading) pictures of ourselves to represent us online. It’s my modern day retelling of the myth of Sisyphus, but in this version it’s the desire to be liked/loved that is the weight.
The character is wearing a mask of my face, cheeks sucked in, the ultimate social network profile picture - which is at odds with the fact I’m dressed in my painting clothes, which represent reality. It’s not that serious, it’s meant to be pretty tongue in cheek!
I wanted to take the new but now utterly iconic 2D graphic of the Social Network “Like” thumb and make it into an actual three dimensional sculpture. 500 Million of us click this little guy repeatedly every day, making it into an actual physical object that exists in the real world to me is beyond funny.
Camera & Edit: Derrick Argent & Garry Maclennan.
Thumb Build: Tom Simmonds. Ali Wylllie.
Music & Concept: Lyken.
Lyken appears Courtesy of Gamma Proforma.
Painting Details. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
All work created by Lyken in the space during his Recoat Gallery residency.
All work Acrylic, Gesso, Spraypaint, Ink & Pencil on Canvas. 2012.
Images Courtesy of Recoat Gallery & Mateusz Sleczka.
Remaining Work Available from Recoat Here.
Pre-Show Teaser Video. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
Short teaser video shot during Recoat residency showing the instal of the Loneliness Machines Show (Full Film to Follow)
Camera: Mateusz Sleczka
Edit: rob@gammaproforma.com
Music: Lyken. Courtesy of Gamma Proforma.
Animated Giff. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition.
Lyken made the short film “Sisyphus_73 Invited you to like his page” as part of the Installation for “The Loneliness Machines” Solo Show at Recoat Gallery.
Here is an Animated Giff taken from the endless walk cycle as Sisyphus_73 struggles with the need to be “liked”.
Full Film Here:
Flyer. The Loneliness Machines. Mark Lyken Solo Exhibition
Mark Lyken’s Solo Show The Loneliness Machines is the result of a Residency at Recoat Gallery, Glasgow during January 2012.
The show consists of a series of Original Works: Paintings, Film, Audio & Sculpture which he describes as “Abstract Meditations on the Digital World.” All conceived & created in the space in a frenzy of 16 hour days, 7 days a week, over a month long period.
As our interactions and communications become progressively more mediated and facilitated by technology, our connections to one another seem increasingly fragile. As we become more connected through personal technology and social networks are we becoming alienated from each other and ourselves?
Lyken on the Loneliness Machines:
“I wanted to hold a mirror up to the here and now and explore how we engage with Social Networks & the Internet as a whole. How is our growing reliance affecting our “real” relationships?
To be clear I am in no way pointing an accusing finger, I revel in it! In fact if truth be told this show is actually my love letter to the digital age.
It’s worth remembering that the Internet is no more than a network of wires attached to storage devices, it’s not a Monster and if it is then we created it. All of our best & worst traits are magnified and reflected back at us. We are The Loneliness Machines - not our Computers or Games Consoles or Television or anything else that cops the blame for inertia. It’s just us bathed in screen light filling servers with our madness, ideas, insights, beauty, comedy, insecurities, tedium, brilliance & darkness.”
The Exhibition runs from 10th February until 4th March. 12-6pm Tues to Sun.
Recoat Gallery, Glasgow. 323 North Woodside Road. G20 6ND.
