Joanna Hogg & Nick Turvey
PUSH ME PULL YOU
2024 A Real Woman
Joanna Hogg & Nick Turvey
Medium:
Digital and printed billboards
Displayed:
UK-wide, July - August 2024
Artwork Description:
Push Me Pull You was the first creative collaboration by life partners filmmaker Joanna Hogg and artist Nick Turvey. In response to an invitation to participate in Station to Station – Doug Aitken’s takeover of the Barbican Arts Centre, the pair began a series of conversations about how they might work together, which inevitably turned into conversations about the differences in their practices and personalities.
It became apparent these exchanges themselves were incredibly creatively interesting, and that they would become the basis of the artwork itself. It also became clear that, if they were to work together, Hogg and Turvey would need to learn to listen. In an attempt to do so, the pair switched roles within the dialogue, speaking each other’s words and physically transforming themselves to embody the other.
The artists’ work for The Gallery is a composite image created from the resulting film of this performance and stands as a document of Hogg and Turvey’s commitment to recognising the value in each other’s individuality.
Artist's Comment:
In trying to work out what the original ‘Push Me Pull You’ might be, we spent time in deep discussion and realised these dialogues had a value in themselves. Drawing on a distant memory of couples therapy workshops, we decided to affirm each other’s words - switching roles and playing the other half of the scene. We had to learn to transform ourselves into each other. The uncanny thing was the out-of-body experience hearing one’s own words spoken by another, recognising one’s quirks and tropes, and learning to respect and treasure the other’s.
Bio:
Joanna Hogg (b. 1960, UK) is a British film director and screenwriter. She made her feature film debut in 2007 with Unrelated followed by Archipelago (2010), Exhibition (2013), The Souvenir (2019), and The Souvenir Part II (2021). Two of her films topped the Sight & Sound annual poll for best film in their respective years, receiving nominations at the British Independent Film Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Berlinale. Her latest film The Eternal Daughter premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. She is currently working on her next feature film set in Los Angeles.
Nick Turvey (b. 1960, UK) is a sculptor, filmmaker and designer, who studied Architecture at Bristol and the AA, and Glass at the Royal College of Art. He received a two-year bursary from the Royal Society of Sculptors, an Arts Council International Fellowship for a residency at Khoj, Delhi and the Brian Mercer Stone Carving residency in Pietrasanta. Moving image work has included music videos, short drama and documentaries, with work shown at international festivals, London cinemas, the Barbican Centre, Beumanns Museum, Rotterdam, broadcast by NHK and the BBC, and distributed by Factory Records. His sculptural work has been exhibited at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge,
Beukenhof-Phoenix Gallery, Belgium, Mascall’s Gallery, Brighton, Gibberd Gallery, Harlow, National Glass Centre, Sunderland, The Print Room, London, and Eleven Spitalfields, London, among others. His work is in the permanent collections of Pinsent Masons and the Harlow Art Trust.
