OPENING NIGHT // 4 March, 6-9pm
CURATOR’S TOUR // 4 March, 5pm
View the artist’s symposium below
Turf Projects presents Get Fit, a new exhibition contemplating the spirit and aesthetics of contemporary gym culture. Brought together by co-curators Olivia Domingos and David John Scarborough, this group show delves into the physical, social and emotional experiences that appear to have become part and parcel of what it means to ‘shape-up’ – whilst harking back to the former use of Turf’s Keeley Road exhibition space as the fitness shop Workout World.
The space, once walled in mirrors and host to a showcase of exercise machines and fitness gear, here offers alternative perspectives on the gym club environment. On display are works by a selection of UK-based artists, imitating this world of memberships, self-esteem, voyeurism and supplements, but also more sensitively considering how we interact with each other and ourselves in the growing commercial industry of physical health.
Abstracting these atmospheres of bodily exertion the show further reflects upon ever-present advertisements for the active lifestyles that we may or may not aspire to. But as the curators also point out, people themselves display fewer boundaries in the gym arena, and the private is made public in open displays of self-endurance, or even leisure. Artists featured here explore the creation of these atmospheres via various mediums including specially designed lighting, partitions and sound, and employ their own bodies as well as ours in re-imagining these experiences.
Turf Projects Gallery, Workspace & Studios
Keeley Road, Croydon, London. CR0 1TF
Open Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00 – 17:00 or by appointment
Supported by:
Photos by: Tim Bowditch