optical › Nick Turvey

Massive Orange Object
2009. Polyurethane and stainless steel. 275 x 25 x 180 cm.

A giant lens creates an intense disruption of space, the object itself transformed into a phenomenon or force field, deconstructing and re-ordering perception.

Commissioned by Lambeth Arts and Mount Anvil. Permanently installed outside the old South Bank University in London. The address is 345 Wandsworth Road, London SW8, next to the junction with Lansdowne Way.
Massive Orange Object
2009. Polyurethane and stainless steel. 275 x 25 x 180 cm.

A giant lens creates an intense disruption of space, the object itself transformed into a phenomenon or force field, deconstructing and re-ordering perception.

Commissioned by Lambeth Arts and Mount Anvil. Permanently installed outside the old South Bank University in London. The address is 345 Wandsworth Road, London SW8, next to the junction with Lansdowne Way.
Massive Orange Object
2009. Polyurethane and stainless steel. 275 x 25 x 180 cm.

Commission for Mount Anvil, London. A giant lens creates an intense disruption of space, the object itself transformed into a phenomenon or force field, deconstructing and re-ordering perception.
Massive Orange Object
2009. Polyurethane and stainless steel. 275 x 25 x 180 cm.

A giant lens creates an intense disruption of space, the object itself transformed into a phenomenon or force field, deconstructing and re-ordering perception.

Commissioned by Lambeth Arts and Mount Anvil. Permanently installed outside the old South Bank University in London. The address is 345 Wandsworth Road, London SW8, next to the junction with Lansdowne Way.
Eidola
2009. Polyurethane and stainless steel. 600 x 400 x 120 cm.

Sculpture commission for City Offices, London. A shimmering cloud of watery ripples is created from fifty custom-made, giant, fresnel lenses, which multiply and magnify the view of the street, transforming it into a piece of kaleidoscopic cinema.
Eidola
2009. Polyurethane and stainless steel. 600 x 400 x 120 cm.

Sculpture commission for City Offices, London. A shimmering cloud of watery ripples is created from fifty custom-made, giant, fresnel lenses, which multiply and magnify the view of the street, transforming it into a piece of kaleidoscopic cinema.
Eidola
2009. Polyurethane and stainless steel. 600 x 400 x 120 cm.
Sculpture commission for City Offices, London. A shimmering cloud of watery ripples is created from fifty custom-made, giant, fresnel lenses, which multiply and magnify the view of the street, transforming it into a piece of kaleidoscopic cinema.
Big Blue
2008. Stainless steel, glass, water and dye. 250 x 250 x 50 cm.

Project for Bury Divisional Police Headquarters. A giant, blue lens, intentionally reminiscent of a magnifying glass, calls to mind the exploits of beloved, fictional super-sleuths. However, for visitors arriving on foot, the lens frames and magnifies the headquarters, and it is the police themselves that are presented for scrutiny, in a playful take on the idea of accountability.
Some Things Occur by Necessity
2007. Lead Crystal. 30 x 26 cm.
Glass has been intimately entangled with the development of scientific thinking, from the alembics of the alchemists to the instruments of Hooke and Galileo. Here, the medium and process of working with hot glass has been used as a plastic, polydimensional algebra, a cloud chamber of tracks and traces frozen in massive thicknesses that bend light like gravity.
Some Things Occur by Necessity
2007. Lead Crystal. 30 x 26 cm.
Glass has been intimately entangled with the development of scientific thinking, from the alembics of the alchemists to the instruments of Hooke and Galileo. Here, the medium and process of working with hot glass has been used as a plastic, polydimensional algebra, a cloud chamber of tracks and traces frozen in massive thicknesses that bend light like gravity.
Mister Mark
2007. Lead crystal. 20 x 19 cm.
“..And when mind began to set things in motion, there was separation from everything that was in motion, and however much mind set in motion, all this was made distinct. The rotation of the things that were moved and made distinct caused them to be yet more distinct.” Anaxagoras
Hidden Dimensions
2007. Lead crystal. 38 x 38 x 8 cm.

The perceptual disruption of highly refractive, transparent materials can thus be understood as an intrusion of non-Euclidean space into our seemingly stable everyday world of three co-ordinates, or alternatively as macro-scale, involute, extra dimensions, what a mathematician might call manifolds.
Hidden Dimensions
2007. Lead crystal. 38 x 38 x 8 cm.
The perceptual disruption of highly refractive, transparent materials can thus be understood as an intrusion of non-Euclidean space into our seemingly stable everyday world of three co-ordinates, or alternatively as macro-scale, involute, extra dimensions, what a mathematician might call manifolds.
Once Given Universe
2007. Plywood, emulsion paint, fluorescent light. Dimensions variable.

How frequently do we see what we have learnt to see, rather than what is actually there? In this installation, Light, and our perception of it, is both subject and medium. Is one half of the wall darker, or is the other lighter? A relativistic optical illusion conceals the underlying unity. In the context of Delhi, a city that I experienced as deeply segregated, the work reminds us of the importance of a shared conception of space. Installation created at KHOJ studios in Delhi, during an Arts Council International Fellowship.
Once Given Universe
2007. Plywood, emulsion paint, fluorescent light. Dimensions variable.

How frequently do we see what we have learnt to see, rather than what is actually there? In this installation, Light, and our perception of it, is both subject and medium. Is one half of the wall darker, or is the other lighter? A relativistic optical illusion conceals the underlying unity. In the context of Delhi, a city that I experienced as deeply segregated, the work reminds us of the importance of a shared conception of space. Installation created at KHOJ studios in Delhi, during an Arts Council International Fellowship.