Exhibitions2002Gavin Turk: Oeuvre

Turk’s Ouvre (Duck) was installed outside the Tate Britain in July of 2002 for six months.

Oeuvre (Duck) was the third of a series of giant eggs. The first of these was a hen's egg, which Turk made in response to being asked to design a coffin. The egg is often interpreted as a symbol of birth and creation, but at the same time it also suggests fragility and mortality.

Turk's egg, commonplace and domestic, in a natural open-air environment, is made comic and surreal by its sheer size. Presented on a human scale, the egg refers back to the artist as creator, and hints at the familiar conundrum 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' It becomes a metaphor for origin and originality.