Growing up by the sea in Cornwall on the southern coast of England, Growing up by the sea in Cornwall on the southern coast of England, Alex Turvey came into contact with the Cornish folklore that would have a lasting impact on his impressionable young mind.

“The theatrical, macabre, ritualistic and often sexual performances that I witnessed being paraded through the streets of local villages have definitely left their mark on my work,” says the Falmouth College of Arts grad, who also lists Edgar Allen Poe, Twin Peaks and cats as influences. “One particular favorite is the Obby Oss festival. Each May, a horse-like chap, the ‘Oss’, dons a gruesome mask and a huge black cape under which he tries to catch young maidens as they pass through town. Powerful stuff when you’re a young boy in a small town with a lurid imagination.”

It’s also the type of stuff that contains enough allure to keep one fleeing from the real world for the rest of one’s life. For Turvey, it’s all about transformation: using his craft to not only color the world, but add copious amounts of glitter to it.

“I separate myself from reality through film by inventing my own universe, in which ideas can be brought to life,” says Turvey of his approach. “It was through trying to achieve an otherworldly aesthetic that my love affair with glitter began.”

Turvey specifically cites his contribution to Blinkink director Noah Harris’ Ford “Zeitgeist”, in which a host of designers were invited to create unique pieces that would feature in the spot. Turvey built a four-foot-high, rotating, glitter heart – an organ that pops up repeatedly in his work – and then exploded more glitter from a compressed air rig directly at a kissing couple who had been painted matte black.

While the glitter affair may be coming to a close, Turvey has a treasure box of ideas at his disposal based on his interest in textiles and masks, which feature heavily in his music videos, Lilly Wood & The Prick “Down the Drain” and MSTRKRFT’s “Paris”.

“When I began making films, I overcame my inexperience of working with the human form by using the body as a canvas, upon which I could invent and build my own characters,” he says. “I found I had more control over the physical design than human expressions. So really it’s developed from there. I’ve always loved the drama costume can bring, and so it seems normal for me to add embellishment: a huge headpiece or a mask in order to obscure [the human] form.”

Signed to London-based Love, Turvey is seeking rep in the US and Tokyo. In the meantime, he’s working on his first short while continuing to hone his most impressive transformation yet: his aesthetic, which he dubs, “surreal folk horror with sequins.” Q    

> The artist on the art
“This image was taken during the Lilly Wood & The Prick ‘Down The Drain’ video shoot. A melancholy Nili and Ben sit amongst the sad animals of Topsy Wood – a child-like theatrical setting where broken hearts go to die. (Featuring fantastic cat and owl masks by Helena Turvey.)”

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