This kissing stone is made of a used granite curb stone from Hackney, historically granite paving stones signified investment and longevity, the road was a permanent placing, whereas the newly formed concrete or cement replacements give it a transient quality.

The viewer is asked to interact with the stone by kissing it. Reversing the usual ‘do not touch the art’ barrier between the viewer and the artwork, you are now asked to bend down and kiss it. In turn become part of the performance, one corner of the kissing stone is smoothed through a process that appears to be centuries of kissing. By touching the stone there is a transfer of energy, the performer is imbued with the gift of creativity. Reminding us of the rubbing of Buddhas belly or St. Peter’s foot in the Vatican, also the Blarney Stone, which when kissed endows the kisser with the gift of the gab.

There is a saying, that if you are to fall over and hit your face, possibly when you’re drunk, or pushed, it could be said that you have kissed the curb.

A small standing stone, alluding to a mystical marker of something buried underground.

Kissing Stone

Engraved granite stone

This kissing stone is made of a used granite curb stone from Hackney, historically granite paving stones signified investment and longevity, the road was a permanent placing, whereas the newly formed concrete or cement replacements give it a transient quality. The viewer is asked to interact with the stone by kissing it. Reversing the usual ‘do not touch the art’ barrier between the viewer and the artwork, you are now asked to bend down and kiss it. In turn become part of the performance, one corner of the kissing stone is smoothed through a process that appears to be centuries of kissing. By touching the stone there is a transfer of energy, the performer is imbued with the gift of creativity. Reminding us of the rubbing of Buddhas belly or St. Peter’s foot in the Vatican, also the Blarney Stone, which when kissed endows the kisser with the gift of the gab. There is a saying, that if you are to fall over and hit your face, possibly when you’re drunk, or pushed, it could be said that you have kissed the curb. A small standing stone, alluding to a mystical marker of something buried underground. [New text-AS]

Domestic

Sculpture

This kissing stone is made of a used granite curb stone from Hackney, historically granite paving stones signified investment and longevity, the road was a permanent placing, whereas the newly formed concrete or cement replacements give it a transient quality.

Ghost Pop

Silkscreen ink and metallic paint on canvas

Sid Vicious

Outsider

Warhol

Masks

Self-Portrait

Faces

Silkscreen

3 x 3 square tapestry spelling out Gavin Turk

Something & Something

Embroidery on cotton

Embroidery

Naughty & Nice

One & Other

Ones & Twos

Equal & Versus

Betwixt & Between

Rotor Rings

Glass and mixed media

12 rotating rings (6 front, 6 back) using the traditional Olympic colours in the style of Duchamp's Rotor Reliefs

Automaton

Fate

Duchamp

Small Yellow Senza Titolo

Oil on linen

Painting

Disembodied from any room, structure or building, this oversized painted wooden door, which appears from its peeling varnish, to have been left to the elements from some years, opens or closes (depending on which way you look at it) onto infinite possibilities and nothingness, alike. A playful homage to William Blake’s famous doors of perception and Rene Magrittes' painting 'La Victoire', visitors are invited to walk through Turk’s trompe l'oieil door into the enchanting realms of the imagination and beyond. As ever the work highlights philosphical contradictions and is a key work within Turks oeuvre.

L'&Acirc;ge d'Or (Green) 

Painted bronze

Magritte

Public Sculpture

Disembodied from any room, structure or building, this oversized painted wooden door, which appears from its peeling varnish, to have been left to the elements from some years, opens or closes (depending on which way you look at it) onto infinite possibilities and nothingness, alike. A playful homage to William Blake’s famous doors of perception and Rene Magrittes' painting 'La Victoire', visitors are invited to walk through Turk’s trompe l'oieil door into the enchanting realms of the imagination and beyond.

L'Âge d'Or (Green) 

Evil Eye

Poured acrylic paint on tondo canvas 

Appropriation

Eyes

Small Door (White &amp; Green)

Small Door (White & Green)

Rock Gunslinger Yellow and Green

Diamond dust and acrylic paint on canvas

Acrylic paint and diamond dust on canvas

Celebrity

Elvis

Green Door

Digital print on paper

Doors

Work on paper

Self Portrait (Fountain)

Bronze, heating element, pump, water, stones

Self Portrait (Fountain) (2012), is inspired by a 1993 Arte Povera self portrait by Alighiero Boetti positioned in the artist’s signature stance. The gun from Pop is replaced here by a hose drizzling water onto the figures bald bronze pate. The result is a self-deprecating recycled artwork of a clown-like portrait – with steam emanating from its hot head. In this iteration Turk uses pathos to question originality.

Artist

GT Eggs Pink

Small Door (Cream & Greige)

Painted Bronze

Letters & Colours

Signatures

Small White Senza Titolo

Alchemy

Pink Door

Installation info: Wall mounted with clear plastic spacers and nickel wire and with three plugsAs a direct reference to the painting ‘La Victoire’ by Rene Magritte. Port is a surreal gateway: a spiritual journey through the imagination.  It is a key to unlocking ideas of the infinite as mused on by Aldous Huxley quoting Blake. "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."	It simultaneously references Duchamp earlier work ‘11 Rue Larrey’ the door that is never open or shut.

Port (Blue)

Blue neon mounted on a black wall

Installation info: Wall mounted with clear plastic spacers and nickel wire and with three plugsAs a direct reference to the painting ‘La Victoire’ by Rene Magritte. Port is a surreal gateway: a spiritual journey through the imagination. It is a key to unlocking ideas of the infinite as mused on by Aldous Huxley quoting Blake. "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."	It simultaneously references Duchamp earlier work ‘11 Rue Larrey’ the door that is never open or shut.

Signs

Illusion

Installation info: Wall mounted with clear plastic spacers and nickel wire and with three plugs As a direct reference to the painting ‘La Victoire’ by Rene Magritte. Port is a surreal gateway: a spiritual journey through the imagination. It is a key to unlocking ideas of the infinite as mused on by Aldous Huxley quoting Blake. "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." It simultaneously references Duchamp earlier work ‘11 Rue Larrey’ the door that is never open or shut.

The Observing Eye

Animated white neon mounted on a black box

Yellow neon door mounted on a black wallAs a direct reference to the painting ‘La Victoire’ by Rene Magritte. Port is a surreal gateway: a spiritual journey through the imagination.  It is a key to unlocking ideas of the infinite as mused on by Aldous Huxley quoting Blake. "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."	It simultaneously references Duchamp earlier work ‘11 Rue Larrey’ the door that is never open or shut.

Port (Yellow)

Yellow neon mounted on a black wall

Yellow neon door mounted on a black wall As a direct reference to the painting ‘La Victoire’ by Rene Magritte. Port is a surreal gateway: a spiritual journey through the imagination. It is a key to unlocking ideas of the infinite as mused on by Aldous Huxley quoting Blake. "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." It simultaneously references Duchamp earlier work ‘11 Rue Larrey’ the door that is never open or shut.

Transit Compression

Crushed Transit van

Transit

Vehicles

11 x 11 square embroidery spelling out Gavin Turk in English and Farsi.

Air & Sea

Embroidery on cloth

Camouflage

Punk Gunslinger Blue and Green

Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit Disaster Arcade Green

Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish.