josie rae turnbull

𖦹𓆏𖦹 Launch Event next Friday 15/8, 6-9pm. 𖦹𓆏𖦹 Exhibition dates: 15/8 to 5/10. Commissioned by ‘a space’ arts, Our Coffers Were Emptied to Pay for Your Pleasures by Josie Turnbull is an installation exploring cycles of desirability, extraction, and obsolescence through the ‘factual fable’ of the Asian Arowana – a critically endangered fish turned luxury commodity. Artificial scarcity and selective breeding practices have transformed the fish into a status symbol and, despite a waning market, a multi-million-pound Arowana trade persists through networks of breeders, collectors, international championships, and ‘groomers’, who perform cosmetic surgeries on the fish. This installation at God’s House Tower visualises the imagined fate of an anthropomorphised Arowana – a former champion cast aside. Artefacts, including costumes, trophies, and merchandise, build a memoir dramatising the Arowana’s tragic ‘rise and fall’. These individual works repurpose pound shop tat, broken toys, and fast fashion garments – the detritus of overproduction. The work traces a lineage of British colonial extractive industries in Malaysia, the Golden Arowana’s place of origin, and draws parallels with the ruthless star-making machine of Golden Age Hollywood, as evoked in films like Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). By framing the Arowana trade as a contemporary tale of overreach, exploitation and spectacle, Our Coffers Were Emptied to Pay for Your Pleasures reflects on a familiar matrix of frictions: global trade, conspicuous consumption, and ecological and moral decay. “If luxury is what is produced in excess of an object’s capacity to be used, then anything can be luxury—if you just make it useless.” — Joanna Walsh The exhibition includes costumes in collaboration with @lambdog1066 , fish tanning lamps by Laurie Loads and soundscape/musical memoir by @wesleypatrickgonzalez

🚨🐠 It’s the final week of Josie Turnbull’s exhibition, Our Coffers Were Emptied To Pay For Your Pleasures. On display at God’s House Tower. Remaining dates: → Thu 2 Oct (10am - 4pm) → Fri 3 Oct (10am - 5pm) → Sat 4 Oct (10am - 5pm) → Sun 5 Oct (10am - 4pm) 🎨 Saturday 4 Oct: Take-away Trophy Treasures (11am - 12:30pm). A family-friendly, drop-in workshop exploring what makes something treasure-worthy. The session will celebrate collage and kitsch through irreverence and imagination. Perfect for ages 4+, but all are welcome.  🖼 Sunday 5 Oct: Artist Led Tour: The Fabled Fortunes of a Fish with Josie Turnbull. Ask Josie questions, hear about her practice, and dive deeper into the work. 🎟️ FREE tickets for both sessions are still available. Tap the link in our bio to book. About the exhibition: Josie Turnbull presents a ‘factual fable’ of the endangered Asian Arowana, exploring cycles of desire, extraction, and obsolescence — and the strange economics of luxury, scarcity, and grooming in the global fish trade.  #LoveTheOldTown #JosieTurnbull #ArtExhibition #Southampton #Arowana #WhatsOnAtGHT @friedspectacle @visualartssw  @visit_soton  @visit_hampshire @your_southampton  @southamptonforward  @southampton @aceagrams

2nd version of 4 panel medical privacy screen, custom made for the iteration of ‘Saline Shock', part of TOA IV at @vccavietnam 9/22-12/22. Horseshoe crab sculptures from found objects worked into digital collage, printed on deadstock velvet + dimout upholstery fabric with satin trim. produced by @dotuonglinh , selfless support from VCCA team and artists. tended to by the friend i don’t deserve @superhumanbill

new improvisational patchwork quilt; hand sublimation printed mixed fabrics, quilt batting, satin, loads of thread

More photos of 'Our Coffers Were Emptied to Pay for Your Pleasures', Commissioned by @aspacearts , showing at @ght_soton until 5/10. Incessant thanks to the ‘a space’ team, GHT front of house staff, and the silky and precious people who brought it into being: Curator: @miaamydelve Fabrication, display structures, technician: @kaneapplegate Costume: @lambdog1066 Soundscape: @wesleypatrickgonzalez , @roziplain + Fiz Oliver Studio assistant: @billieturnbull Model ship rigmarole/rigging: Wendy Fagan Lighting Design: Laurie Loads Set seamstresses: @oonabrutton + @a_sutherlanda Proposal development: @minaheydariwaite

posting in parts: Some of the work in my current exhibition, Our Coffers Were Emptied to Pay for Your Pleasures". Commissioned by @aspacearts and on at @ght_soton until 5/10 fish business was only made possible thanks to the genius friends + family who worked on this project. My coffer is empty, my heart is very full. involved in the works shown here: Curator: @miaamydelve Technician: @kaneapplegate Costume: @lambdog1066 Sculpture assistant: @billieturnbull Lighting design: Laurie Loads Set seamstresses: @oonabrutton + @a_sutherlanda Proposal development: @minaheydariwaite Exhibition soundscape: @wesleypatrickgonzalez

🏆tat 🏆for my show at @aspacearts @ght_soton

Digital collage sublimation printed on salvaged satin + sketchbook screenshots 160cm x 240cm 2023, commissioned by @shapearts and @hayes_eli printed at @rqstudio

"Valentino said there’s nothing like tile for the tango" 2024 Plastic, spray paint, acrylic paint, pearlescent mica pigments, false nails, beads, polymer clay, aluminium tape, cable ties

Sublimation printed jacket and trousers, reworked dress, 2023

HMS Repulse 2024 Wood, acrylic, wire, pearlescent mica powder, repurposed lamé trousers, hand printed luxury velvet, cord, beads, faux pearls