Exhibition: Our Coffers Were Emptied to Pay for Your Pleasures by Josie Turnbull
Exhibitions, Free, In Person
Friday 15th August – Sunday 5th October 2025
God's House Tower, Southampton
GHT is open from Thursday to Sunday.
“If luxury is what is produced in excess of an object’s capacity to be used, then anything can be luxury—if you just make it useless.” — Joanna Walsh
Commissioned by ‘a space’ arts, Our Coffers Were Emptied to Pay for Your Pleasures by Josie Turnbull is an installation exploring cycles of desirability, extraction, and obsolescence through the ‘factual fable’ of the Asian Arowana – a critically endangered fish turned luxury commodity. Artificial scarcity and selective breeding practices have transformed the fish into a status symbol and, despite a waning market, a multi-million-pound Arowana trade persists through networks of breeders, collectors, international championships, and ‘groomers’, who perform cosmetic surgeries on the fish.
This installation at God’s House Tower visualises the imagined fate of an anthropomorphised Arowana – a former champion cast aside. Artefacts, including costumes, trophies, and merchandise, build a memoir dramatising the Arowana’s tragic ‘rise and fall’. These individual works repurpose false nails, broken toys, and fast fashion garments – the detritus of overproduction.
The work traces a lineage of British colonial extractive industries in Malaysia, the Golden Arowana’s place of origin, and draws parallels with the ruthless star-making machine of Golden Age Hollywood, as evoked in films like Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). By framing the Arowana trade as a contemporary tale of overreach, exploitation and spectacle, Our Coffers Were Emptied to Pay for Your Pleasures reflects on a familiar matrix of frictions; global trade, conspicuous consumption, and ecological and moral decay.
About Josie Turnbull
Josie is a multi-disciplinary artist and young people’s artist educator currently based in London. She completed an MA in Fine Art and Science at Central Saint Martins in 2022, following a number of years living in Ho Chi Minh City. Recent public presentations include a sculpture and short film commission as part of a cross disciplinary collective within the AHRC funded ‘Rethinking Fables’ project (2025), a commission by Shape Arts for ‘Open All Hours’, 198 Gallery, London (2023) ‘Open All Hours’, 198 Gallery, London (2023) and ‘Saline Shock!’ (solo), Orleans House Gallery London (2023). Also in 2023, she was awarded an Arts Council England DYCP grant to fund her international research on the Arowana fish, and was shortlisted for the UAL Sculpture/Clifford Chance Award. Selected residencies include the ‘Transcultural Collaboration – Shared Campus Semester’ in Zurich, Singapore and Yogyakarta (2022) UAL’s ‘Making Waves Scientist in Residence Program’ (2022), and was artist in residence at School360 Primary School (2021-2022).
In tandem with her personal studio practice, she has created moving image work for live music performances and music videos; for artists such as Rắn Cạp Đuôi, and Wesley Gonzalez.
Vist Josie’s website here: josie-rae-turnbull.format.com
Critical Writing Commission
Freshwater: A House Tour by Khairani Barokka was commissioned by ‘a space’ arts as part of our Critical Writing programme, in response to the ideas and themes in this exhibition.
Click here to read Freshwater: A House Tour By Khairani Barokka
Click here to listen to Freshwater: A House Tour By Khairani Barokka
Access and Quiet Spaces
The ground-floor bar and café at GHT have step-free access from Town Quay Road. For information on parking and travel, please visit our Plan your Visit page.
The artwork for this exhibition is located in the Main Gallery and the Barker-Mill Project Space, both of which are accessible via lift.
Quiet Hours: Every Thursday morning from 10am – 12pm, lights will be dimmed and sound levels lowered.
For the duration of this exhibition, the library will also be available as a quiet space. This space includes dimmed lighting, seating, quiet music, and water. You are welcome to use it at any time if you would like a break.
If you’d like to familiarise yourself with the venue before your visit, you can take a virtual tour of our spaces on our website. You’ll also find a visual story introducing members of the GHT team.
Click here to read Shorter Version of the Exhibition text
Click here to read Glossary of Terms
Listen to audio version of the Exhibition Text
Listen to Audio Walk Through of this exhibition
Associated Events at God’s House Tower
FLARB (Free, Lazy, Arty, Radical Bookclub)
Sunday 14th September, 1:30pm
FLARB is a ZEST Arts Collective initiative run by ZEST co-director and artist Ellen Gillett. For this special series of FLARB events at GHT, Ellen will facilitate an informal conversation in response to the exhibition, referencing a newly commissioned text by Khairani Barokka along with some coffee and cake.
Artist Voices: In Conversation with Josie Turnbull and Khairani Barokka (Online)
Thursday 25th September, 6pm
Join Josie Turnbull and artist & writer Khairani Barokka to explore the ideas behind Josie’s commission and discuss fish, fiction and fables.
GHT Creative Writing Group
Sunday 28th September, 2:30pm
Led by Susmita Bhattacharya, the GHT Creative Writing Group offers a series of free writing workshops using our contemporary art programme as the stimulus for creativity. For this workshop, Susmita will be exploring different forms of flash fiction. Beginners welcome!
Drop-in Family Workshop: Takeaway Treasure with Josie Turnbull
Saturday 4th October, 11am
This drop-in session invites you to explore what makes something treasure-worthy. You’ll get a magpie’s-eye view of the materials Josie uses in her practice – foil, beads, tinsel, doilies, broken toys and bric-a-brac – and craft them into keepsakes to take home.
Artist-Led Tour: The Fabled Fortunes of a Fish with Josie Turnbull
Sunday 5th October, 2:30pm
A special celebration to mark the end of the exhibition, featuring a tour led by the artist providing insight into her creative process followed by an informal Q&A session with both Josie and ‘a space’ arts curator & programme manager, Mia Delve.