Artworks1992Epiphany

A surveillance mirror signed in permanent marker, named after Richard Hamilto’s slip it to me.

‘The Arnolfini Portrait’, painted by the Dutch master Jan van Eyck (and often thought to depict a wedding), is famous for featuring a convex mirror in which van Eyck himself can be seen. Above the mirror the artist has written ‘Jan van Eyck was here 1434’. Many think the artist was employed as a witness to a marriage, with his newly invented oil-painting technique being used to create legal documentation, like photographs are today. Meanwhile, ‘Epiphany’ is also a title of the British Pop artist Richard Hamilton’s circular, 1964 painting that bears the text ‘SLIP IT TO ME’; a phrase that suggests illegal activities when related to a surveillance mirror. Because Turk’s piece reflects the whole room, it has the effect of adding his signature to everything around it, laying claim to all work on display with the pseudo-legal authority of van Eyck’s signature.