Statement from the show:
TurnHurst began in 2006 at Kingston University with the opening of The Shit Gallery, a receptacle for our fellow students' most embarrassing and clichéd works of art. Since then, we have continued to question the art establishment through video, performance and sculpture. Traditionally creativity has been described as an extraordinary (usually male) individual's solitary struggle for artistic self-expression. We have decided to work collaboratively to explore the complexities of partnerships, and of collaborations.
Just the Two of Us (ongoing)
By re enacting and re staging iconic images from popular culture and those that hold personal chemistry or energy for us, such as the work of Warhol and Basquiat, Just the Two of Us questions the nature of our collaboration. Is TurnHurst destined to be as successful as Gilbert and George or are two young female artists always destined to professionally crash and burn like the tragic ending in the film Thelma and Louise?
Just the Two of Us allows us to see how we fit in the art scene, and what we bring to it. We are able to get an insight into what the artists felt like when the picture was taken, and what the process was for them. The images become a record of a performance, and the chemistry that exists between us. By displaying them in a group it helps to realise the absurd, and the frivolous, we are not all those people.
Gam (2008-2009)
70 white porcelain whales guard the gallery floor, lined in pairs, confronting the viewer. Addressing the notion of learning, and of teaching, Gam celebrates the individual within a collaboration, we cannot do everything that the other can. By exploring the skills each of us have, and don't have, we learn more about each other. Despite all coming from the same mould each whale is hand-crafted and is unique. They represent the differences between collaborators, and how their collaborations are always more than a sum of all the parts.
