Why the long title?

I have written before about how impressed I am by the work of the new contemporary galleries which have appeared in the regions. Both Nottingham Contemporary and the Hepworth Wakefield impressed me with their exhibitions, facilities and general sense of style. This was especially after my experience of speaking about the history of collecting at Nottingham Contemporary in 2011 to coincide with their Already There show curated by the artist Klaus Weber.

I was excited, therefore, to have the opportunity to revisit Nottingham Contemporary today, and see their current show Mark Leckey: The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things. Readers of this blog won't be surprised that the title excited me, but I was surprised, and I have to say a little disappointed, by how similar the show is to the Weber one. From the long, slightly philosophical title - Weber's main show was called If you leave me I'm not coming - to the mix of museum objects and contemporary art, the two exhibitions seem to sing from the same hymn sheet. Both play with the presentation style of a museum, Leckey's evoking both science and history of design museums, Weber's a museum store. Both make an argument for the relationship between modern technology and historic artefacts.

There are undoubtedly some wonderful objects in the Leckey show. Among the historic artefacts I was drawn to the soviet 'Dog space suit' on loan from the National Space Centre, and the 'Model of a cat to demonstrate reflexes' from the Science Museum. Among the modern art, I felt Ward Shelley's 'Map of the History of Science Fiction' and Roger Hiorns' 'Nunhead', two engines covered in subtly different blue copper sulphate crystals, particularly resonated. Yet, overall, I felt that the contemporary art was much less successful than Weber's contributions or selections, and worked less well in Nottingham Contemporary's impressive space.

The Leckey show is a Hayward Touring exhibition. Given how much more successfully Nottingham Contemporary staged its own show along these lines in 2011, I'm left wondering why they have chosen to take this Hayward tour now.