Exhibition: Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons to run at the Hayward Gallery.

An exhibition that uses materials scavenged from salvage yards to comment on science fiction, failed political movements, dark histories and countercultures will run at the Hayward Gallery.

Showing until May 7, Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons, is the first major survey exhibition of large-scale immersive installations and sculptural works by the internationally-acclaimed British artist.

Nelson’s psychologically charged and atmospheric installations take viewers on enthralling journeys into fictional worlds that eerily echo our own.

Designed to dramatically transform the spaces of the Hayward Gallery, the artist’s exhibition includes towering sculptural works and new versions of his key epic installations, many of which are being shown at the Hayward Gallery for the first time since their original presentations.

Mike Nelson said: “My intent has always been to make immersive works that operate on multiple levels.

“They should have a narrative, a spatial aspect, but also a psychological effect on the senses: you’re seeing and feeling one thing whilst your brain is trying to override this and tell you something else.”

Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward Gallery, said: “Mike Nelson’s installations are interactive in the very best sense: through potent arrangements of culturally and psychologically charged props and architectural structures, they prompt each viewer to imagine a story that makes sense of the scene before them.

“Though his installations sometimes physically enclose us, their open-ended narratives beckon to a seemingly endless play of possibilities – even as they conjure bleak scenarios evocative of the fringes and margins of society.”

Constructed with materials scavenged from salvage yards, junk shops, auctions and flea markets, Nelson’s installations have a
Weaving references to science fiction, failed political movements, dark histories and countercultures, they touch on alternative ways of living and thinking – lost belief systems, interrupted histories and cultures that resist inclusion in an increasingly homogenised world.

The catalogue for Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons, designed by Fraser Muggeridge Studio, will combine new writings with existing materials to offer readers a comprehensive overview on the artist’s multifaceted practice.

Picture: Triple Bluff Canyon by Mike Nelson Picture: Mike Nelson and Hayward Gallery