ARTICLE | The Chilliwack Times
360 degree
Alex Turner’s focus as an artist gives us a panoramic view of our car culture
By Robin Chambers
October 4, 2002
What Alex Turner creates is not only art, but a systematic study of human and social geography. The North American car culture, the importance placed on major shopping centres outside the urban core, and our absolute obsession with living in a homogeneous environment are all fundamental concepts anchoring his work that became a passion more than 30 years ago.
Though he grew up here, Turner calls, both Harrison and Toronto home. But still he finds the majority of his work is done with a 50mm Pentax rangefinder camera in hand at local parking lots, malls, housing developments and in the remaining pockets of nature reserves.
His panoramic views are taken at 360° and completed by using a series of 12 to 14 photos which are then scanned into the computer, cleaned up and burnt onto a compact is for reproduction on watercolor, archival paper using a commercial inkjet printer.
When working he tries to be as unobtrusive as possible, choosing to travel light without the aid of a tripod.
“The urban landscapes is an extension of the natural landscape. This is where the show comes from: the contrast between the natural and the developed world,” said Turner of both his Artists’ Gallery show and that of the City Hall display, which run concurrently, the former from Oct. 5-29 and the letter from Oct. 10 to Nov. 5.
The mainly Chilliwack and Sardis compositions that will be on display at City Hall are dominated by the shopping mall culture. It’s a reflection of how he feels about the community.
“In the 50s Chilliwack was a fabulous little town. Five Corners was vibrant and that’s where town was. It was in the center not in the periphery.
“It’s a reflection of how I see the community. What it comes down to is an illustration of how we are captive of a car culture how it melds our environment.”
One composition follows the unfolding of a Harrison housing development from July 1999 to April 2002.
“I’ve always been interested in the sequence of time and what happens in a spot over a series of time.”
Studying the progression, what becomes obvious is the dominance of the garage, the lack of sidewalks, the width of the streets and the size of single-family homes.
Surprisingly, Turner does little photography of Toronto developments, finding it too overwhelming. He prefers to capture what he grew up with.
Turner used to teach art, video design, and photography.
This month he shares the spotlight with local artist, Mike Edwards. Edwards works with sculpture, painting, and drawing, and his subject matter includes waves, their physical characteristics and metaphoric possibilities.