Artworks2005Spent Match

A bronze cast of a used match painted to look real.

A miniature echo of

Burnt Out

, this match was used to start the fire. Its sulphur is used up and the tiny tool discarded.

The simple tool used to start a fire, Turk’s bronze spent matches tells a story of life and early civilisation but also of destruction, fire-starters and revolutionaries. But the life of these matches has come to an end. Their purpose fulfilled, they have been discarded as waste - symbols relating to fire but also of fires which have burnt out. And yet this tiny piece of detritus, so easy to overlook on the street, has been cast in bronze. Something fragile, ephemeral and worthless has been transformed at the hand of Turk into something solid and permanent, containing within it both hidden value and hidden meaning.