The Edge of Forever
Emma McNally, Alison Turnbull
13 Jun—6 Sep 2025The Edge of Forever is an exhibition of paintings by Alison Turnbull and drawings by Emma McNally. The title is borrowed from the planetary scientist Carl Sagan’s 1980’s book Cosmos.
"Enmeshed in infinities, artists and scientists conjure with the universe from within the confines of the human body, under the deadlines imposed by a limited lifespan.", writes Dava Sobel (author of Longitude) in her accompanying text. "They apply mathematics and imagination. They detect tremors emanating from collisions between the most massive dying stars. They hear the music of the spheres."
Emma McNally’s meticulous drawings suggest maps or charts of things as complex and various as seas, the night sky, military bases, computer circuit boards, flight paths. "For me drawing is a rhythmic material sounding of inseparability. ‘Song X’ series is staying with the trouble of the edge, the border: an attempt at a dynamic reformulation. Maybe forever (always, all ways) abides in the scrambling of the idea of the edge, which is to say, in borderlessness, inseparability, indeterminacy, entanglement, rhythm, deep field."
Alison Turnbull's expansive painting series 'eXtreme Deep Field' derives from a composite astronomical image made using the Hubble Space Telescope, eXtreme Deep Field. For Turnbull the Hubble image, has a strong relationship with painting: "It’s a picture of time that is very densely constructed; if you looked out through a telescope you would never actually see this, and it moves photography far beyond the question of analogue or digital… Here the notion of the 'onement' of painting is set against the infinity of the image."
Emma McNally (b. 1969, Essex) lives and works in London. McNally studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of York before continuing her thinking visually through drawing. Recent group and solo exhibitions include: The Drawing Room, London, UK (2024); ‘Afterness’, Artangel / National Trust, Orford Ness, UK (2021); 20th Biennale of Sydney, AU (2016) and ‘The form of the Form’; Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2016); ‘Mirrorcity’, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2015); ‘Seeing/Knowing’, Kenyon College of Liberal Arts, Ohio, US (2011).
Alison Turnbull, (b. 1956, Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works in London. Turnbull transforms readymade information – plans, diagrams, blueprints, charts – into abstract paintings. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Casas Riegner, Bogotá (2025); Inverleith House, Edinburgh (2022); Many Minute Attentions, co-curated by Alison Turnbull and John Stezaker, Large Glass (2021); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2021); Saicoro, Tokyo (2020); Matt’s Gallery, London (2018); Five Easy Pieces, Large Glass, London; (2017); Turner Contemporary, Margate (2016); De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill (2014); Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (2012).
"Enmeshed in infinities, artists and scientists conjure with the universe from within the confines of the human body, under the deadlines imposed by a limited lifespan.", writes Dava Sobel (author of Longitude) in her accompanying text. "They apply mathematics and imagination. They detect tremors emanating from collisions between the most massive dying stars. They hear the music of the spheres."
Emma McNally’s meticulous drawings suggest maps or charts of things as complex and various as seas, the night sky, military bases, computer circuit boards, flight paths. "For me drawing is a rhythmic material sounding of inseparability. ‘Song X’ series is staying with the trouble of the edge, the border: an attempt at a dynamic reformulation. Maybe forever (always, all ways) abides in the scrambling of the idea of the edge, which is to say, in borderlessness, inseparability, indeterminacy, entanglement, rhythm, deep field."
Alison Turnbull's expansive painting series 'eXtreme Deep Field' derives from a composite astronomical image made using the Hubble Space Telescope, eXtreme Deep Field. For Turnbull the Hubble image, has a strong relationship with painting: "It’s a picture of time that is very densely constructed; if you looked out through a telescope you would never actually see this, and it moves photography far beyond the question of analogue or digital… Here the notion of the 'onement' of painting is set against the infinity of the image."
Emma McNally (b. 1969, Essex) lives and works in London. McNally studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of York before continuing her thinking visually through drawing. Recent group and solo exhibitions include: The Drawing Room, London, UK (2024); ‘Afterness’, Artangel / National Trust, Orford Ness, UK (2021); 20th Biennale of Sydney, AU (2016) and ‘The form of the Form’; Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2016); ‘Mirrorcity’, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2015); ‘Seeing/Knowing’, Kenyon College of Liberal Arts, Ohio, US (2011).
Alison Turnbull, (b. 1956, Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works in London. Turnbull transforms readymade information – plans, diagrams, blueprints, charts – into abstract paintings. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Casas Riegner, Bogotá (2025); Inverleith House, Edinburgh (2022); Many Minute Attentions, co-curated by Alison Turnbull and John Stezaker, Large Glass (2021); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2021); Saicoro, Tokyo (2020); Matt’s Gallery, London (2018); Five Easy Pieces, Large Glass, London; (2017); Turner Contemporary, Margate (2016); De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill (2014); Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (2012).
Emma McNally
Alison Turnbull
Enquiries
sales: Charlotte Schepke
info: Gabrielle Slack-Smith
Exhibition Text
‘The Edge of Forever’, Dava Sobel, June 2025
Alison Turnbull
Enquiries
sales: Charlotte Schepke
info: Gabrielle Slack-Smith
Exhibition Text
‘The Edge of Forever’, Dava Sobel, June 2025