In his debut solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, New York-based artist Daniel Turner will present works that were salvaged, transformed and recontextualised from the Mandalay Generating Station, a decommissioned power plant situated 60 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
As a natural gas-powered thermoelectric generator, the facility was operated by Southern California Edison from the mid-20th century until its closure in 2017. With Turner’s transformation of remnants of an electrical plant into a series of paintings, drawings, sculptures and films, he echoes a calibrated process of site-responsive reflection and material distillation.
Throughout Turner’s practice, he is convinced that physical objects carry an inherent emotional, psychological, and historical meaning. With the help of copper elements extracted from the Oxnard site, he has created large-scale paintings and works on paper based on his investigation of alloy properties. Upon removal, these components were milled into refined copper wools through an intricate milling process. Thereafter, these wools were methodically burnished into the surfaces of canvases, resulting in achromatic veils within his picture planes.
The exhibition will run from May 30 to August 25, 2024, at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles South Gallery.
