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Contemporary Art Practice (MA)

Skye Turner

Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine.

Skye Turner is a filmmaker, performer and sculptor interested in obscurity in the quotidian, esoteric knowledge, horror, the liberating power of LARP and absurdity. 

Their most recent exhibition was a collaborative residency with Layan Harman at C4RD Islington, entitled 'Hortus Conclusus'. This residency involved generative storytelling through role play as two characters reluctantly hosting each other in their respective fantasy landscapes, projecting their constructed notions of wilderness and survival onto Dulwich Woods. This experiment was displayed through a film 'The Raging Hosts', artefacts and performance. 

They recently produced and curated the collaborative project 'LARPgarden' with The Brunswick Club as part of the WEVAA consortium fund. LARPgarden was a series of artist-led workshops with a coalescing event that encouraged the exploring of story, narrative and role-play across philosophy, music, performance and sculpture.

They are a member of the South West based collectives The Brunswick Club and CHAMP. 

Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine. Two performers in dragon costumes perform a ritual.

True Medicine is a film accompanied by a series of 3 performances, taking place within an installation of props and costumes, forming an ‘occult tool-shed’ at the degree show.

In the film I attempt to host the audience within my prophetic healing dream, whilst maintaining lucidity. I induce this dream within my self proclaimed ‘pop-up Asklepieion dream temple’. Bizarre mythic characters interrupt with arcane industrial, alchemic practices.

Performances involve costumes and bizarre props such as a biomorphic ‘lure’ made of tarpaulin, used to extract a tulpa from the body via an image of a bleeding pond printed on heavy plastic (ritual tool built to last) which functions symbolically as the self. Featured monologues combine language from paranormal reddit forums, scientific data logs, youtube meditations and theatrical speech. 

The three performances ‘Allure’, ‘Canine Catharsis’ and ‘Lexicon of Metallic Shorthand’ are structured as a presentation of research methodology, a tool demonstration and a guided meditation.

Together, the film and performances map a conspiratorial mythology centring around the source and cure for obscure, sourceless marks and wounds with which I claim to be suffering. I have mapped and formed this mythology throughout the year, roleplaying and performing to generate the narrative. This mythos is formed of occult histories, protoscience and pop culture references.


Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine.
Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine. Colourful ointments are applied to fake wounds.
Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine. Two performers in dragon costumes perform a ritual.
Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine. Two performers in fantasy hazmat suits play with fake guts.
Two performers in dog costume hit the artist wearing armour.
Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine. Fake blood is extracted by a syringe.
Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine. A performer in a dragon costume stirs a potion in a plastic box.
Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine in which two performers in fantasy costumes drink through tubes form a monster.
A foaming potion spills form a brass dish.
Film still, a woman applies medicines to her wounded back.
Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine. Two performers in dog costumes inspect fake guts.
Still from Artist's film entitled True Medicine, in which a woman pulls guts from a plastic sculpture
A woman squeezes juice from a gut in to a medicine jar.
The artist performs over a print of a bloody pond, they build a sculpture from salt dough, a cat inspects them.
Canine Catharsis
The artist performs over a print of a bloody pond, whilst two performers dressed as dogs attack them
The artist performs over a print of a bloody pond, they build a sculpture from salt dough, a cat inspects them.
The artist performs to an audience at the Tate Modern, with a film playing on a screen in the background. They carry props.
Allure
The artist performs to an audience at the Tate Modern, with a film playing on a screen in the background. They carry props.
The artist performs to an audience at the Tate Modern, with a film playing on a screen in
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Film still from 'The Raging Hosts', performer wears helmet and instruments in the dark.
Metal costume, a mask and a drum that sits on the shoulders, mounted to a wall.
Film still from The Raging Hosts, performer wears costume and crouches on stone archway.
Soft sculpture of a shark on gothic metal stands.
Film still from the film 'The Raging Hosts', man inspects mud under a green light.
Soft sculpture of a shark on gothic metal stands.
Film still from The Raging Hosts, performer inspects metal object in the woods.

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Royal College of Art

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