Stephen Turner: Everything Comes From the Egg

Stephen Turner, the artist who occupied an egg-shaped wooden vessel for three years, opens his first exhibition about the project at Trinity Buoy Wharf, and touring to galleries and waterside locations across southern England during 2017. It will be the first time the Egg has resided in an enclosed environment featuring as the central sculptural form in a wide-ranging exhibition comprising drawings, prints, photographs, found objects, works on paper, sculptures and video made by Turner over the last few years.

Stephen Turner: Everything Comes From The Egg melds Turner’s ongoing environmental, historical and cultural investigations into the natural world with a sustainable artistic practice and temporary ‘hermit’ lifestyle. During solo residencies in the Egg on the River Exbury in the New Forest from 2012-2014 and by the Leeds & Liverpool Canal for Super Slow Way in Burnley in 2015, Turner catalogued his forays in each location. Borrowing scientific methodologies, the artist transmuted them to his creative process; from collecting red river water in order to observe sedimentation to presenting multiple series of glass jars filled with fauna and flora preserved in alcohol, and upcycling clothing by patterning the fabric with natural dyes. His observational drawings on discarded packaging use inks sourced from oak leaves; and small egg-shaped sculptures are made from dove feathers, mosses, shells, crab claws and other natural materials. Turner’s video works present visual meditations on living and working in and around the Egg.

Turner’s practice is concerned with aspects of time and the dialectics of transience and permanence. He often spends long periods in odd abandoned places, noting the changes in the complex relationship between people and the natural environment. His previous work includes installations for Turner Contemporary in Margate, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland and Fermynwoods Contemporary Art in Northamptonshire. He has undertaken residencies for Stour Valley Arts at Kingswood in Kent and for Seafort, where he occupied a derelict searchlight tower on the Shivering Sands in the Thames Estuary.