Josey proudly presents an exhibition of new work by Rhianna Turnbull. In her work Turnbull seeks to position herself at the centre of her world - drawing on her daily environment in the production of images that attempt to create and negate meaning. Instrumentalising a diaristic library of resource material – a complex image bank – she articulates a deeply personal desire towards certain images and in so doing insists on her own perspective. Asserting personal subjectivity in this way and foregrounding judgement complicates registers of interpretation and questions the value of an image within a given context.

Turnbull’s work is developed through tangible material processes such as collage and low-fi printing techniques. She commonly reproduces existing artists’ works in different forms and through this use of appropriation engages material to her own ends.

Appropriation also exists in an abstract sense by directing others in the production of her work. Through the re-handling of photographs taken by Turnbull’s friends at Selfridges department store the images simultaneously offer an outsider’s gaze and act as personal observations. Turnbull poses questions in an ongoing exploration of her relationship to London - a dialogue is created between herself and images which exist at large. The imagery is overwritten by a poem in a pace close to an internal conversation of broken code and past social environments.

Potential is recognised in a still life in the corner of the artist’s room: a scene depicting a banal arrangement of objects includes magazines inside a see-through bag. The meticulous collaging of wrapping paper collapses information values and engages with the levels of opacity inherent in image making.

Throughout the work Turnbull establishes a literal and metaphorical structure of layers and removes, allowing for elements of the personal and societal to move in and out.

Rhianna Turnbull is an artist working between Glasgow and Zürich, recent exhibitions include: Psychological Space at Charity, Glasgow 2023, Postcards at 6 Ardbeg Street, Glasgow 2023 and the group exhibition Comme Otto Dix at Saigon, Athens, 2022.