Exhibitions2006Waste Not Want Not

“I shall show you fear in a handful of dust” – T.S. Elliot

Waste Not Want Not at Galleri Veggerby was a solo show of Gavin Turk’s exploring themes of waste and value.

Turk’s interest in re-assessing everyday banalities has the haiku-like quality of unveiling what appears to be uneventfully familiar for audiences. The objects the artist had chosen to replicate with his painted bronze trompe l’oeils invite observers to re-consider the objects’ usefulness and their value once that use has been served. The use of semi-precious metal to depict a card board box, an apple core or a disposable chip fork playfully subverts the value associated with the objects we think we see.

Litter and Bronze have the streets in common; traditionally bronze is found in our towns and cities cast into the poses of war and myth to celebrate and condition. These public monuments depict the failures of social and political systems, a symbolism which Turk’s sculptures replicate by criticising the behavioural ambivalence of littering and the commercial over-use of natural resources.

The uncanny appearance of Turk’s deceptive forms prompted audiences to revaluate their sense of reality and value systems, whether in relation to art history – perceptions of beauty, the still life and social-realism – or our shared social consciousness.