Random pic 22 August 2024
The Meddling Fiend, Nicola Turner, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 2024 https://flic.kr/p/2qawLCsMixed media including horsehair, wool, wood and brass
Nicola Turner's large and visceral installations are often made in response to their surroundings. Here in the Annenberg Courtyard, Turner took the statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds as her starting point and turned to the artist's works for source material. In her own practice, Turner explores the boundaries between life, death and the liminal spaces in between, and it is these themes that she identified in Reynolds's later works, where he would often juxtapose images of birth and renewal with darker forces.
The Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpents (1786-88) is one of several paintings that Turner drew inspiration from. Hercules is depicted fighting a pair of snakes sent by the goddess Hera, while a dark, swirling mass creeps behind the baby and is held at bay by the sword of a nearby warrior. This same motion is echoed here in the gesture of Reynolds. As he holds his paintbrush aloft, organic tendrils, which Turner has twisted and stitched together, envelop him in a playful yet foreboding way, creating new spaces that connect to the theme of this year's Summer Exhibition.
Turner uses found objects including grand piano legs, chair stuffing and even the contents of old mattresses. These objects in themselves hold traces of different histories and give newlife to what would otherwise be discarded.
Nicola Turner lives and works in Bath and has had recent commissions at Chapter House, Wells Cathedral and Coker Court, Somerset.[Text from RA labels]
Michael Ixer ● 302d0 Comments