Viewing Nike Nelson: ‘Extinction Beckons’

Mike Nelson’s dystopic multi-roomed installation, ‘Extinction Beckons’ is the first major survey exhibition of large-scale immersive installations and sculptural works by the internationally acclaimed British artist. Enter the Hayward’s brutalist spaces and be confronted with materials scavenged from salvage yards, junk shops, auctions and flea markets.

Weaving references to science fiction, failed political movements, dark histories and countercultures, Nelson’s installation 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.

Mike Nelson says: “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.”

Born in Loughborough (UK) in 1967, Nelson represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2011 and has twice been nominated for the Turner Prize (2001; 2007).