Meredith Turnbull
Hold
18 May - 15 June 2024

Hold is new body of sculptural work by Naarm-based artist Meredith Turnbull. The exhibition examines morphology and the intertwining nature of material in our designed environments, combining approaches to sculpture, adornment and contemporary jewellery practices. The project is inspired by the material ingenuity and abstract and formal conventions of iconic artists Ruth Asawa (Japanese American,1926-2013) and Isa Genzken (German, b. 1948). The project also responds to art historical sources in decorative metalwork from English, Scottish and French, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco and Art Nouveau traditions across interior design and wearable scales. Hold explores how humans can honour living and non-living material and engage with the ethics of material use connecting us to different ecologies and our environment.

Meredith Turnbull’s practice focuses on human connections to the world of objects and things; making and material, and the experiential and temporal register of forms. Meredith’s participatory projects, sculptural practice and photography explore desire and pleasure in art making and art experiences and traverse lived connections between the fields of contemporary art, craft and design. As an artist she is committed to an inclusive approach to art form, genre, and practice and processes for diverse ages and experiences. Her work encourages audiences to think about how we engage with objects and material to connect to each other and the worlds around us.

Presented as part of Melbourne Design Week 2024

Meredith Turnbull is a Naarm/Melbourne based artist, curator and writer. She completed a Bachelor of Art (Honours) in Art History at LaTrobe University in 2000, a Bachelor of Fine Art (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT University in 2005 and a PhD at Monash University in the field of Sculpture and Spatial Practice in 2016.
Turnbull has developed projects for the National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art and the Ian Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University. Recent projects include: Soft Words (Daine Singer, Melbourne 2023), Meredith Turnbull: Together (Bayside Gallery, Melbourne 2022), All Together (Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton 2022), the performance What does wearing something do? with Behn Woods (RMIT Design Hub 2019) and the exhibition SHE TURNS (c3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne 2017). Her artworks have been acquired for numerous private and select public collections including MUMA, Heide Museum of Modern Art and the Ian Potter Museum at the University of Melbourne.
In 2022 M: 33 published Meredith Turnbull: Objects, a survey of 14 years of photographs of Meredith’s constructed tableaux.