Exbury Egg comes to Gunwharf Quays and Aspex Gallery

Stephen Turner, the artist who created the Exbury Egg, a wooden egg-shaped sculpture in which he lived and worked for over a year during 2013 and 2014, continues his odyssey across southern England with a new exhibition and residency programme, Everything Comes from the Egg, in Gunwharf Quays and Aspex Gallery over the coming months.

Turner’s egg will be installed in the central pond of Gunwharf’s City Quay from May 16th for three months. A month after the egg’s installation, in mid-June, the exhibition Everything Comes from the Egg opens in Aspex.

The exhibition will give visitors the opportunity to see the range of artwork, ephemera, and documentation Stephen has made and collected over the course of the project.

It’s a comprehensive showcase, comprising photographs, found objects, works on paper, sculptures, and videos made by Turner over the last four years. Stephen will also be continuing his exploration of places and communities as Artist in Residence at Aspex through May 2017.

Colin Wilding, General Manager at Gunwharf Quays, said: “Hosting Stephen Turner at the centre of Gunwharf Quays will give visitors an opportunity to witness this unique project up close. Our location on Portsmouth’s historic waterfront will provide a truly spectacular backdrop for this incredible structure.”

Joanne Bushnell, Director of Aspex, said: “We are thrilled to be hosting this exhibition, showcasing the work produced by Stephen Turner throughout this yearlong residency in the Exbury Egg and for the opportunity to work closely with Gunwharf Quays, to bring this engaging body of artwork to a wider audience.”

Everything Comes from the Egg combines Turner’s ongoing environmental, historical, and cultural investigation into the natural world, with a sustainable artistic practice and a temporary ‘hermit’ lifestyle.

During solo residencies in the Egg on the River Beaulieu in Exbury in 2013 and 2014, and by the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in Burnley in 2016, Turner catalogued his forays in each location in collections of digital imagery, objects, drawings, and personal maps.

Borrowing scientific methodologies, the artist transmuted them to his creative process: collecting red river water in order to observe sedimentation, presenting multiple series of glass jars filled with local flora including samphire and fruits preserved in alcohol, upcycling clothing by patterning fabrics with natural dyes, etc.

His observational drawings on discarded packaging use inks produced from oak galls, and small egg-shaped sculptures are made from dove feathers, mosses, shells, crab carapace, and other natural materials.

Video works reflect and comment as visual meditations on living and working in and around the Egg in different places.

Find out more about the exhibition on the Aspex Gallery site »