a love affair at a distance
theo turpin

The exhibition expands outwards from a central story, one of drama, of jealousy, of emotional pique – it’s a story of heartbreak at the Opera.

The various objects, from the Enzo Mari love seat to the fabric wall hangings, forms a body of work more akin to a theatrical set, one in which we – the users of DKUK – play out our roles, animating the events unfolding in the storied world of this very particular gallery space. We are all protagonists in this drama. The visual accumulation of shared signifiers – sunsets, Modernist design, advertising – combine with a playlist selected by the artist to augment your visit. Each of its component parts unfold some element either narrative and tonal or aesthetic to broaden its telling. Scroll, swipe, play.

This performativity relies not only on generic tropes of 20th century storytelling but calls into question our own characters and their ideals. We as performers but also authors. We as the fabricators of our own fictions. Asking what are we attempting to build here? What of collaboration, of collectivity?

BIO

Theo Turpin works with installation and storytelling to explore the narrativisation of daily life, the means by which linguistic codes combine with an abstract notion of romance and new technologies to score our day to day. He lives and works in London where he graduated with a BA from Camberwell College and an MFA from Goldsmiths. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally and between 2012 and 2013 was artist in residence at Palais De Tokyo, Paris. His first book, Into The Night, from which the central story in this exhibition arises has just been published by Atlas Projectos.