Ben Turnbull: American History RemiX

About

Artist Ben Turnbull presents American History Remix; a retrospective exhibition voyaging through 150 years of America’s tumultuous past at London’s Saatchi Gallery, opening 17th June. With an unashamedly parodic lens, American History Remix is a boldly candid exploration of the nation’s most defining moments, from the birth of the ‘American Frontier’, via the Kennedy assassinations to the darker days of gun culture and the inauguration of Donald Trump.

American History RemiX subverts the childhood innocence of comics, action figures, colourful collages and school paraphernalia to reimagine U.S history through the eyes of a troubled child, like that of Sid from Toy Story. On display for the first time, Turnbull’s latest work Seduction of the Innocent (2021), created during lockdown, is inspired by psychiatrist Frederic Wertham’s 1954 book of the same name that warned comics were damaging to young minds. In his signature ‘Angry Pop’ style Turnbull offers an alternative theory using the very comics Wertham condemns, manipulating these to expose the engulfing web of America’s political mayhem with unforgiving accuracy.