The Turn
Exhibition | 25 September – 1 November 2025 | 1 Poultry, City of London
Installation view of Monster Chetwynd, Aquatic Ape, 2019.
Borrowed from the second act of a magic trick, The Turn, curated by AWITA member Shakthi Shrima, names the moment when something vanishes - before any reappearance or closure. Staged within this condition of interruption, the exhibition brings together a group of artists whose work lingers in states of suspension, withdrawal, and latency. Disappearance becomes an engine of meaning here, a site of fractured coherence where gestures stutter and accumulate rather than resolve.
The exhibition responds to an insatiable cultural demand for resolution, for every image to explain, every reference to arrive. The Turn aims to refuse that trajectory. Instead, a simple question is asked: What remains when nothing returns?
Spanning painting, performance, video, sound, sculpture, and installation, The Turn takes a deeper look into artistic practices concerned with the act of vanishing both as formal strategy and existential engine. The exhibition is staged within the interior of 1 Poultry, one of London’s most distinctive postmodern architectural landmarks, whose past lives as a gym, clothing shop, and theatrical façade echo the ethos of the project.
The exhibition brings together internationally significant voices in contemporary art: ritual-inflected painting, votive taxidermy, body-based performance, generative poetics, and carnivalesque mythmaking. From early photographic experimentations to resurrected experimental film, these works share a commitment to suspension, gesture, and the deferral of closure.
Participating artists include: Janine Antoni, Anne Brigman, Rameshwar Broota, Monster Chetwynd, Leonardo Devito, Cordula Ditz, Leif Holmstrand, Henry Krokatsis, Marcel Mariën, Polly Morgan, John Robinson, Benjamin Spiers, Juan Sorrentino, Cajsa von Zeipel, Christian Rex van Minnen, aurèce vettier, Unskilled Worker, and Laura Xinyue Zhou.
The Turn is made possible with the generous support of Hypha Studios, whose commitment to reimagining urban space enables the exhibition’s inhabitation of this architectural palimpsest at the heart of the City.
Upcoming Event Schedule
October 17
Frieze Week Midissage 6-8pm / Performance by John John Robinson 5-7pm.
October 18
Panel Talk: Slight of Hand, Magic and Machinations in the art world.