New art for Yorkshire: Nicola Turner’s haunting installation now open at YSP
Yorkshire Sculpture Park has opened its latest exhibition Time’s Scythe, by British artist Nicola Turner in its 18th-century Chapel.
The powerful installation made from wool and horsehair begins outdoors on the building’s facade, spilling from the bell tower and entering through an upper window, before cascading over the balcony to inhabit the nave.
Visitors are able to walk amongst its forms, with the earthy smell of wool heightening its impact.
A YSP spokesperson said: “This is Turner’s first installation at such significant scale to use pale wool and creates a different energy to her darker sculptures.
“Encased in mesh, individual tendrils of raw wool and horsehair are entangled and stitched together to create the work’s bulbous masses.
“There is something primal about the seeping movement of these bodily forms through the space.”
Her work often incorporates found historical objects, such as ornate furniture legs, that also represent an imprinted history of accumulated touch and use.
Pincer-like at the tips of the tendrils of Time’s Scythe, a multitude of traditional sheep shears reach towards the altar like claws. The shears also link to local historic traditions of manufacturing and industry, including toolmaking in Sheffield, where many of these examples were produced.
The title, Time’s Scythe, is drawn from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 12 and forms part of the line “And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence”.
The poem refers to the relentless march of time, ageing, decay, and the inevitability of death, all themes that align with Turner’s work.