In 2014 Outset and Art Licks jointly commissioned Sky Line, a digital project by artist Lawrence Lek (b. Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1982) for the Art Licks Weekend 2014.
Sky Line is a utopian virtual world based on London, where players explore a new transportation network that connects galleries and project spaces across the city. Modelled as a floating version of the Circle Line, each station is based on a location that participated in the Art Licks Weekend 2014 festival; with its curatorial concept and physical architecture adapted to its digital double. Travellers are given unlimited access to the hovering trains, moving between independent galleries, domestic exhibitions, subterranean spaces, and other fragments of the city. Open ticket gates, ghostly buskers, looping videos, and flickering signs act as guides to explore this speculative world.
Sky Line continues Lawrence Lek's use of simulations as a medium to assemble three-dimensional collages of found objects and situations drawn from observed reality. Here, he applies this process to collective space, creating a transient urban network in order to uncover hidden patterns and dreams embedded within the physical city. The project was presented as a download, video tour, and was exhibited as a playable game in an installation at SPACE’s the White Building in Hackney Wick for the Art Licks Weekend 2014.
ON VIEW: 3rd - 5th October 2014
The Art Licks Weekend is a festival that showcases the work of pioneering young artists, curators, galleries and project spaces in London. The festival is organised by Art Licks, a platform for the lesser-known and under-represented activities that form the grassroots of visual culture in London, launched in 2010.
In 2014, the Art Licks Weekend was a three-day event for which young galleries, not-for-profit projects, artist-run spaces and independent curatorial projects are open to the public with special events and exhibitions of work by emerging artists. With over 70 participating spaces showcasing 200+ artists, the Art Licks Weekend is a unique event that encompasses the most exciting artistic talent and innovative ideas in London, celebrating the creative energy of this young art scene.
The festival concentrates on those pockets of artistic activity in east and south London where some of the most interesting exhibitions, events, screenings and performances take place – including Bermondsey, Bethnal Green, Deptford, Elephant & Castle, Hackney, Hackney Wick, Haggerston, Lewisham and Peckham. The Art Licks Weekend represents galleries and spaces that have set themselves up on their own initiative, often with little or no funding, delivering programmes that are exciting, relevant and innovative.
