Mark Leckey's 'On Pleasure Bent' Video and Installation Critiqued in 2013 Review

Mark Leckey's video work 'On Pleasure Bent' includes 'Pearl Vision' (2012), produced during a residency at the Hammer Museum, which exhibits a cinephilic desire for digital video's analytical capacity, contrasting with Ken Jacobs's 1969 film 'Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son' that reflects modernist reflexivity and libidinal cinephilia. 'Pearl Vision' focuses on a Pearl Vision snare drum, viewed through kaleidoscopic and endoscopic perspectives, with partial glimpses of a drummer's legs and the sound of drumsticks. The video also features disjointed scenes from 1970s footage suggesting Leckey's childhood memories, alongside cardboard standees and looped LED animations that evoke electrical towers. The review, published in December 2013 by ArtReview, critiques 'On Pleasure Bent' as overly art-school-like and curatorial in persuasion, except for 'Pearl Vision'. Walter Benjamin's distinction between magical and surgical approaches is referenced, with Jacobs's work described as magical and Leckey's as surgical. Annette Michelson's phrase 'independent persuasion' is cited in relation to filmmakers' cinephilia.