I think when I look back at the first Extinction, Beckins catalogue which was the first iteration sort of I can see almost everything still in there. But also it seems to me that it's still there in the work, you know, even now. And how much is that related to this notion of hybrid script which you developed in that sort of mid-90s period? It's quite a clear idea of three different elements to a certain degree. So all these ideas of course I sold not and it was all hypothetical but I witnessed the audience come in and look at this and they really didn't go anywhere with it. They just saw the object and didn't really take it to
Ben Luke talks to Mike Nelson about his influences—from the worlds of literature, film, music and, of course, art—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Nelson, born in 1967 in Loughborough in the UK, is one of the most significant British sculptors and installation artists of this century. He has spent the past three decades assembling materials gathered in junkyards, flea markets, online auctions, even street-corner fly tips into often labyrinthine sculptural environments. He creates distinctive spaces that suggest fictional (and often science-fictional) narratives, while alluding to diverse histories, obscure countercultural or political movements and current affairs as well as his own biography. He discusses the early influence of Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon, his elation at discovering the work of Paul Thek, how fiction—and science-fiction writers like Stanislaw Lem, J.G. Ballard and the Strugatsky brothers—liberated his approach to art making, and the enduring influence of film-makers including Jean-Luc Godard and Sergei Parajanov.
Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons, Hayward Gallery, London, until 7 May.
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