In his neon works, Turk not only resurrects the motifs of art’s modernist lore, but excavates and further mythologizes his own practice – quite literally sending his own legacy up in lights. Drawing reference to Magritte’s Elective Affinities (1933) – a Surrealist painting of an oversized egg in a cage, where the two seemingly unrelated subjects find a common theme of redundancy, eggs have been a recurring symbol throughout Turk’s career, appearing in his paintings, collages, sculptures, and public monuments. In Neo Egg, Turk uses this image as a sign of interconnectivity and infinity; its soft yellow radiance giving a ‘new religion’ halo effect to his billboard-scale homage to origin.&nbsp;

Neo Egg

Yellow neon

In his neon works, Turk not only resurrects the motifs of art’s modernist lore, but excavates and further mythologizes his own practice – quite literally sending his own legacy up in lights. Drawing reference to Magritte’s Elective Affinities (1933) – a Surrealist painting of an oversized egg in a cage, where the two seemingly unrelated subjects find a common theme of redundancy, eggs have been a recurring symbol throughout Turk’s career, appearing in his paintings, collages, sculptures, and public monuments. In Neo Egg, Turk uses this image as a sign of interconnectivity and infinity; its soft yellow radiance giving a ‘new religion’ halo effect to his billboard-scale homage to origin.____________________________________________Following in the footsteps of Dali, Magritte and Manzoni, eggs recurs again and again in Gavin’s work as sculptural metaphors for the surreal philosophical puzzle; which came first, the chicken or egg? Symbols of life, of creation, of originality, fragility and mortality Turk’s eggs appear as surreal faces, as giant duck eggs, as broken shells depicting his signature and in liquid form as mayonnaise and egg tempura, while his “hare” eggs create mythical new hybrids altogether. Transforming eggs from the sacred to the profane, the pure to the parasitical, a symbol of creation to something created, Turk journeys from eggs to eggs cups to egg-cup shaped fonts as he explores the delicate relationship between life and death, art and artist.

Eggs

Sculpture

In his neon works, Turk not only resurrects the motifs of art’s modernist lore, but excavates and further mythologizes his own practice – quite literally sending his own legacy up in lights. Drawing reference to Magritte’s Elective Affinities (1933) – a Surrealist painting of an oversized egg in a cage, where the two seemingly unrelated subjects find a common theme of redundancy, eggs have been a recurring symbol throughout Turk’s career, appearing in his paintings, collages, sculptures, and public monuments.

Neo Egg

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