THE ARTIST

Stephen Turner's work is concerned with aspects of time and the dialectics
of transience and permanence. His work often involves spending long
periods in odd, abandoned places, noting changes in the complex relationship
between nature and the man-made. 

Previous projects are strongly rooted in research which explores these
themes, resulting in both permanent objects and impermanent monuments. For
Grotta, a cairn of oyster shells was built on Whitstable beach and then
washed back into the sea close to the oyster beds, in recognition of an
ancient custom; for Time and Tide three thousand clay boats were sailed‚
and then gradually dissolved back into the estuary mud. In a number of other
works, river mud and forest debris have charted changes slowly on canvas.

Stephen Turner has been investigating the Thames Gateway landscape and
architecture since 1998. He has shown recently at Turner Contemporary in
Margate, Trinity Buoy Wharf in London, The Metropole Galleries in Folkestone
and Whitstable Museum and Art Gallery. In 2003 he showed as part of Water,
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Toyota, and Honen-in Temple, Kyoto,
Japan.

Turner has been artist in residence in The Kings Wood, for Stour Valley Arts,
and in Rye for Coastal Currents; has won the Hunting Drawing Art Prize,
2003; and was lead artist for Four Shores, a project on the Isle of Sheppey.

Work from the Seafort Project was shown in 'Theatrum Mundi; performance architecture', at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland December 2006 - February 2007.

Information about other Stephen Turner projects can be found at www.stephenturner.org.uk

Back to top >