Exhibitions2011Me As He

The exhibition title refers to the themes of authorship, authenticity and celebrity that Turk explored in Warhol, Evlis, Gavara and Transit Disaster series. Surpassing appropriation, Turk’s canvases are pure simulation. By confronting the legacy of 20^th century pop culture, Turk hijacked 1960s future-thrust aesthetics as a template for contemporary anxiety.

In the silkscreen prints displayed, the composition, subject matter and style are the product of perpetual re-enactment of modern mythology. The artist’s self-portraits play with ideas of substitution and ownership, as each star’s lionised image becomes is commodified and packaged for Hollywood, Warhol and eventually Turk himself.

Styled on Warhol’s car crashes, Turk’s Transit Disaster series exceeded Warhol’s transfixing horror of banality. Substituting Warhol’s road side wrecks with the image of a torched transit van, Turk entwined ideas of social decline into Warhol’s glamorous oeuvre.