TURF BOON

Turf Boon works as a sculptor, sound artist, and musician. Over the last decade, Turf Boon has created over 40 sound installations and sculptures, focusing on building innovative, spatially and sonically provocative pieces from found and recycled items. He is concerned with turning the detritus of society into sustainable artistic practice, and in bringing to everything he does a global and local attention to the textures and sounds of what we throw away or ignore. His “Freegan” approach is rigorous and all-encompassing: “I don’t buy materials,” he says, “I’ve never bought materials. I use what’s there.”

Born in 1971 in Wicklow, Ireland, Turf Boon studied sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art. After graduating, Boon straightaway began creating works. His first fame was made as a guerilla sculptor, creating unsanctioned sculptures in public places, including the noted series Public Werkers. This soon developed into commissioned work, especially at concerts, festivals, and in Dublin’s underground techno scene. His interest in the placed mutability of sonic structures led him more and more to build sound and music into his work, and to explore the promise of sound itself. Many of his works suggest sound rather than instantiating it, provoking explorations of expectation and intent.

His works have been exhibited at the Draoícht Arts Centre (Blanchardstown, Ireland), the Project Arts Centre (Dublin, Ireland), the Tulca Arts Festival (Galway, Ireland), Eigenart (Berlin, Germany), Darklight (Dublin), Living Music (Dublin), Wien Modern (Austria), Abstract Adventures (Brussels), and Soundfield (Philadelphia, USA). He has held residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annamakerrigh (Ireland) and at the Headlands Center for the Arts (California, USA). He has been commissioned by Rhizome, South Dublin County Council, and others.

Boon’s most recent works include Kir#73astria, 5 23 16, Shoepipes, Kuscheltiermarimbaphon, The Sacred Geometries, the Community Choir Series, and The Softest Music in the World. He lives in Lucan, where he offers workshops on organic farming and building straw bale houses.