Jan Turner

Jan Turner is primarily a sculptor and creator of installations. His projects work with and shift the imagination of everyday events and objects. By reinterpreting the function of objects and materials, he builds on conceptual art and post-minimalist sculpture. He tends to use traditional materials such as wood and metal, though he often works with readymade objects. Using these materials he creates an analogy to everyday objects, which then lose their function, though not their significance.

Another characteristic of Turner’s work is a subtle humour that operates on the level of materials and their properties. Dřevo stažené plastovými řemínky I a II / Wood Pulled with Plastic Straps I and II (2017) is one such example. Turner’s work is characterised by its simplicity and viewer-friendliness, without being superficial. Připravené náhrobky / Prepared Tombstones (2015) is an installation of abstract nameless tombstones made by Ytong. A brief glimpse of the installation reveals immediately what the objects are making reference to, though it is by no means clear what they represent. The theme of cheap materials and namelessness, along with how they are stacked and prepared for use, again embodies a subtle yet cynical humorous undertone pertaining to the absurdity of human existence. In addition, the installation was located in Galerie Na shledanou, which is part of a former crematorium. A similar attitude is to be found in the wooden installation Slon / Elephant (2017), in which the representation of the animal is restricted to tusks sticking out of the ground, which we may freely interpret as a sarcastic commentary upon the rapid disappearance of species in the Anthropocene.

The theme of the quotidian is again present in Židle / Chairs (2015), a series of acrylic paintings in which the repetitive painting of one motif from a single viewpoint offers a moment of both contemplation and caesura within the hustle and bustle of the contemporary world, as well as a certain nostalgia for the disappearance caused by the simplicity of depiction with its grey monochromicity.

A visually and conceptually more complex work is Hlas rodičů v zádech / Parents’ Voice in the Back (2015). The starting point of this work is a technique that Turner has been deploying for some time. This is a physiotherapeutic method involving glass jars with a circular opening being placed on parts of the body. Subsequently all the air is sucked out and the body, where waste products are to be found and the skin is inelastic, reacts by breaking blood vessels resulting in bruising. Photographs of different people who have undergone this procedure are both abstract and yet an embodied testimony of the problems they have encoded in the body. The artist himself says that these are “imprints of our bio-psycho-social identity”. He has long been interested in these techniques, and their use is another typical feature of his work, in which themes and forms are infused with his quotidian experience.

The work in which the spatial situation and abstract principle are transformed into a conceptual statement is Kolmice / Perpendicular, which was originally created for an exhibition on the theme of private nationalism. The installation comprises an iron rod and several chairs. The views of the seated spectators differs because the pole is perpendicular to the ground when viewed from the front but not when viewed from the side. This is a metaphor for the distorted vision of social relationships that leads, for instance, to nationalist tendencies. The situation evoked by Kolmice then allows for two readings of the work – either as a minimalist sculptural installation or the representation of social relationships.

Turner’s older work is characterised by the well-known subtle feature of Czech art, namely the use of cheap materials or readymades with an emphasis on the conceptual. Instead of proclaiming unambiguous themes, Turner attempts to work with the viewer’s everyday consciousness, which, when confronted by these works, is enriched by the possibilities of looking at things in a different way. One might say that after seeing Turner’s works we are able to create them in our imagination in our everyday lives. His works show that objects and the relationships between them offer themselves to be interpreted beyond their customary framework, and that the imagination can develop in immediate proximity, without the need for spectacular visuals or complex fictional worlds.

2014
katalog VII. nový zlínský salon
Noviny Galerie Nashledanou, rozhovor k výstavě

Rádio:

Čajovna / rozhovor s Evou Melo / 2010

Televize:

artycok.tv/lang/cs-cz/26667/jan-turner
Artmix - talent měsíce února 2009
Artyčok, A kdy uprší ten druhej den / NOD / Jiří Havlíček / leden 2009

Tisk:

2013
Lapidárium - recenze
Mistrovství života - Volyně - tisková zpráva
Mistrovství života - Volyně - recenze

2012
katalog Galerie Nashledanou - doprovodné ilustrace
katalog k výstavě Dvojdřez s Alicí Nikitinovou

2011
katalog - Šestý nový zlínský salon 2011
sborník CO14 2003-2005
Psí víno - č. 55

2003
Tomáš Vaněk / Pilování misky / rozhovor pro umělec 04/2003
Pesch Miroslav / Zdravotník se zraněním / Ateliér, srpen 2003