London-based artist/satirist Ben Turnbull has returned to Soho's Lazarides Gallery with an exhibition that comments on chemical arracks, paranoid states, death by underground and all things pop-culturally terror-tastic. Using mostly found objects, toy props as well as a life size statue of Captain America, this exhibition strengthens the gallery's reputation as one of the best bases in London for unconventional/renegade art.
Turnbull, clearly angered and frustrated by the current state of the world, has created a fantasy land where babies in orange Guantanamo-esque suits hang out in a cot below a hovering mobile of passenger planes and where flying ducks are turned into a row of bombs that the audience are invited to detonate.
The works themselves, whilst not exactly subtle, are well-crafted and amusing, and will give you something to ponder as you head back to Old Compton street for your Saturday morning coffee and tiramisu at Patisserie Valerie. Meshing current affairs with paranoia, violence and the acts of horror committed every hour of the day, Turnbull has something to say and says it well.
While it would be easy to categorise these installations as mere America-bashing, look a little harder and it’s clear that Turnbull actually has some sort of obsession with the home of the brave in all its forms – perhaps due to reading a few too many Marvel comics as a child.
In fact Turnbull claims to actually love America, although he apparently has not visited the country, as to him it should only exist in its popular culture as an "adrenalised dimension where the people speak in wisecracks and every helicopter eventually explodes".
A Nightmare on Greek Street is on at the Lazarides Gallery until August 25.