19 October - 6 December 2019
Reflex Amsterdam
Weteringschans 79A
1017 RX Amsterdam
Netherlands
British artist Gavin Turk’s fascination with waste is a reoccurring theme throughout his body of work, exploring its aesthetic, function and value. Opening in October at Reflex Amsterdam, his new solo show features watercolours, painted bronze sculptures, and large silkscreen prints, which investigate the environmental consequences of human existence and consumer society.
“Climate is increasingly becoming a vital subject for artists as they hold their mirrors up to society,” says Turk who was arrested in 2018 for obstructing a public highway as part of the Extinction Rebellion climate change protest in London which saw thousands of people occupy five central London bridges. “Being arrested was like laying down a marker, and enabled unity with movements such as Extinction Rebellion - to wake up politicians to the undeniable evidence that humans are responsible for a dramatic change in the world’s ecosystem - and together to do something about it.”
For Turk, this new exhibition is symbolic of our consumer society. By working with mass produced machine-made products, the artist is subverting the socially dictated “natural order” of things, devoting more attention to something that appears to be waste. Dysfunctional objects usually ignored are put under a magnifying glass in the confinements of the gallery.
