For his new project Stacey Turner is going to need a very large paintbrush. A superbrush in fact. Shifting his focus from the very small to the enormous, Turner will create a new painting on a large unused billboard on Tuam Street, near Real Groovy in Christchurch. Turner’s previous works have examined the processes inherent in painting and featured thick white brush strokes delicately outlined by back pen. These works emblemise the painter’s gesture, at once highlighting and flattening the iconic mark of the artist. In this new project, Turner is faced with the daunting task of transferring these ideas to the large scale. Turner is interested in how the billboard will dictate his gesture; intending to negotiate the size of the space relative to his own physicality, and responding to the flaws evident in the sites surface. Turner’s new work is particularly pertinent given the government’s recent aspirations to legislate against graffiti in urban areas, and will be provocatively situated among office blocks, civic buildings and boutique developments. In some ways a form of guerrilla gentrification, Turner’s new painting will be created from the 24 to the 29 of March, with the aid of a team of helpers. The work is hoped to be finished by March 1 and on view until new development dictates its removal. Stacey Turner graduated with a BFA majoring in painting, and a BA in Te Reo Maori and Art History from the University of Canterbury in 2007. Turner has recently exhibited new work in Three Degrees South, a group exhibition at 64zero3 gallery in Christchurch. This project is proudly supported by HSP Offsite.
