Stephen Turner’s Exbury Egg
Gunwharf Quays
16 May - 3 September 2017
Everything Comes from the Egg
Aspex
16 June - 3 September 2017
In Portsmouth, Stephen Turner’s Exbury Egg is located in the central pond of City Quay while Stephen Turner continues his exploration of investigation of places and communities from a studio located at Aspex.
Stephen will be exploring the local environment surrounding the Egg’s location and be in residence during this time, offering a range of participation opportunities for local people to engage with him. Stephen’s work often involves spending long periods of deep engagement in particular odd abandoned places, noting the changes in the complex relationship between people and the natural environment. This residency in Portsmouth brings Stephen to a popular and busy place, a real contrast to the places he usually finds himself, challenging Stephen to consider todays busy urban life style as opposed to the rural locations which are his natural habitat.
The exhibition at Aspex, opening on 16 June, brings together works developed and made while Stephen was in residence in Exbury, Burnley, London and Milton Keynes. These works cross-over from visual art to contemporary craft, embracing carpentry, dyeing, food production, pastel and ink making, photography, video and drawing. Stephen comments "In an urban 21st century world where we are increasingly disconnected from nature I wanted to use this ancient archetypal symbol to nurture re-enchantment with the natural world, as a step toward a sustainable future."
For events and activities programmed for Portsmouth, please visit the Aspex website: www.aspex.org.uk
everything comes from the egg is the touring exhibition of Stephen Turner's Exbury Egg and a wide range of new artworks developed and made by Stephen Turner while he was located and worked amongst communities in Exbury and subsequently in Burnley, London, Milton Keynes, Portsmouth and Hastings through 2016 and 2017. The Exbury Egg was originally located for over twelve months on the Beaulieu River in the care of The Exbury Estate through 2013 and 2014.
everything comes from the egg now tours to venues in England through 2017, including, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London - reaching out to communities around the River Lee, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth (where the Exbury Egg will be located in Gunwharf Quays) and Jerwood Gallery, Hastings. The tour reflects and develops upon Turner’s original performative relationship with the Egg as a stage for events that embrace the concept that "everything comes from the egg" (Ex Ovo Omnia, William Harvey 1651) and relocates the Exbury Egg and Stephen's practice within four different public visual arts contexts for further explorations and the development of new artworks. These new local contexts are explored by Stephen through residencies as he develops new works, interacting with a wide range of people and communities along urban canals, within a shopping center and by the seaside.
Future exhibition tour dates:
Jerwood Gallery, Hastings: 16 September - 15 October 2017
Stephen's original blog for the Exbury Egg and his residency in Exbury through 2013-14 is here: www.exburyegg.me
The Exbury Egg was designed to the artist’s original concept by PAD Studio in Lymington, Hampshire and commissioned by Space Placemaking & Urban Design (SPUD).
everything comes from the egg is financially supported by Canal & River Trust, Gunwharf Quays, Superslowway, Jerwood Gallery, Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust and public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
everything comes from the egg (and the original Exbury Egg project) could not have been possible without the continuing support of Nicholas and Caroline de Rothschild and the Exbury Estate.