Exhibition: Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons

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, his exhibition will include towering sculptural works and new versions of his key epic installations, many of which will be shown at the Hayward Gallery for the first time since their original presentations.

Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons features ambitious reincarnations of key installations in Nelson’s body of works, including The Deliverance and the Patience (2001), Triple Bluff Canyon (2004) and Studio Apparatus for Kunsthalle Münster (2014); each remembered and reconfigured for the exhibition at the Hayward Gallery.

Constructed with materials scavenged from salvage yards, junk shops, auctions and flea markets, Nelson’s immersive installations have a startling life-like quality. 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 and globalised world.

Nelson represented Great Britain at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 and has shown in leading galleries around the world. He has also been featured in numerous international exhibitions, including the 13th Biennale of Sydney, the 8th Istanbul Biennial and the 13th Lyon Biennale.