H.M.S Kurtz

Painted bronze

'Ceremonial Biscuit', a life-size biscuit cast in 18ct gold, is a pendant that balances it’s precious medium, with the strong contrast of its subject - the unvalued, partially eaten biscuit. Typical of Turk’s artistic practice the signature is a central part of the work. Clear and legible on the biscuit’s face each signature is hand-engraved by the artist.

Ceremonial Biscuit (Gold)

18k Gold

Food

Blighty 

A mechanical sculpture in the form of a fortune-telling Gypsy, Rosy Lee belongs to Turk&rsquo;s investigation of mystic automatons, which all bear an uncanny likeness to himself. Along with the Joseph Conrad-esque sailor, Gentleman Jim and The Mechanical Turk - based on the automaton chess player who beat the aristocracy at games in courts across Europe (all of whom were oblivious to the real person hidden inside) during the late 18th century - the sooth-saying foreigner Rosy Lee belongs to the margins of society&ndash; the circus and the seaside amusement arcade - where she occupies a liminal space that is neither inside nor out. Cockney rhyming slang for a-cup-of-tea, Rosy Lee is also a nod to Turk&rsquo;s interest in tea and its relation to cultural trade, working class Britishness and of course the tradition of reading tea leaves. While Rosy Lee is also art rhyming slang for Rrose Selavy, the drag name of Duchamp&rsquo;s female alter ego, an allusion to art&rsquo;s ability to alter perception and its parallels with the fortune teller&rsquo;s mysterious powers to do the same. So Rosie Lee will tell the fortune of anyone who places a coin in the slot of her booth, which contains the gypsy herself, a crystal ball and a spent candle. Once the payment has been accepted, Rosy Lee will become animated and raise her head to regard the fortune seeker. Looking into the crystal ball, her eyes will glow red and her hands open. Once she has &ldquo;received&rdquo; the person&rsquo;s fortune, her head will drop - a sign her job has been done. But all is not over. A fortune card will then be delivered from the booth.

Rosy Lee

Mechanical SculptureLife Sized Automata 

Automaton

Sculpture

A mechanical sculpture in the form of a fortune-telling Gypsy, Rosy Lee belongs to Turk’s investigation of mystic automatons, which all bear an uncanny likeness to himself.

The outline of an egg shape in black dash lines on a white backgroundFollowing in the footsteps of Dali, Magritte and Manzoni, eggs recurs again and again in Gavin&rsquo;s work as sculptural metaphors for the surreal philosophical puzzle; which came first, the chicken or egg? Symbols of life, of creation, of originality, fragility and mortality Turk&rsquo;s eggs appear as surreal faces, as giant duck eggs, as broken shells depicting his signature and in liquid form as mayonnaise and egg tempura, while his &ldquo;hare&rdquo; eggs create mythical new hybrids altogether. Transforming eggs from the sacred to the profane, the pure to the parasitical, a symbol of creation to something created, Turk journeys from eggs to eggs cups to egg-cup shaped fonts as he explores the delicate relationship between life and death, art and artist.

White Egg Painting With Black Dash Lines

Eggs

Painting

The outline of an egg shape in black dash lines on a white background

Gavin Turk was commissioned by Opera Erratica to design the set of a three-part opera piece titled Triptych.This original opera consists of three seemingly unrelated plays, composed by Chris Mayo, Thomas Smetryns and Christian Mason, with librettos by Orlando Wells and Patrick Eakin Young. Here, a selection of Gavin Turk's artworks are reproduced in a trompe l'oeil fashion as a simulation of the artist's exhibition, and reinserted into the context of the stage. In relation to Turk's oeuvre this presentation effects a double-distancing (a simulacrum of the simulacrum), or mise en abîme i.e a technique in which an image contains a smaller copy of itself. The stage becomes an apt conceptual space for themes of representation, reproduction and recomposition - and also for the deconstruction of these themes. As a back-drop it prevents each play from sitting too comfortably on itself, acting as a doubly false setting that occasionally reverts into the real setting as the characters' roles shift and return to their original stance.

Triptych

Paint on canvas and wood

Gavin Turk was commissioned by Opera Erratica to design the set of a three-part opera piece titled Triptych.This original opera consists of three seemingly unrelated plays, composed by Chris Mayo, Thomas Smetryns and Christian Mason, with librettos by Orlando Wells and Patrick Eakin Young. Here, a selection of Gavin Turk's artworks are reproduced in a trompe l'oeil fashion as a simulation of the artist's exhibition, and reinserted into the context of the stage. In relation to Turk's oeuvre this presentation effects a double-distancing (a simulacrum of the simulacrum), or mise en abîme i.e a technique in which an image contains a smaller copy of itself. The stage becomes an apt conceptual space for themes of representation, reproduction and recomposition - and also for the deconstruction of these themes. As a back-drop it prevents each play from sitting too comfortably on itself, acting as a doubly false setting that occasionally reverts into the real setting as the characters' roles shift and return to their original stance.

Art History

Recycling

The End

Performance

Installation

Gavin Turk was commissioned by Opera Erratica to design the set of a three-part opera piece titled Triptych.This original opera consists of three seemingly unrelated plays, composed by Chris Mayo, Thomas Smetryns and Christian Mason, with librettos by Orlando Wells and Patrick Eakin Young. Here, a selection of Gavin Turk's artworks are reproduced in a trompe l'oeil fashion as a simulation of the artist's exhibition, and reinserted into the context of the stage.

Untitled Fright Wig Piss Painting

Silkscreen ink and metallic paint on canvas

Icons

Warhol

Piss

Waste

Masks

Self-Portrait

Faces

Silkscreen

Unique un-numbered series of 8 Styrofoam Box

Veggie Box

Unique un-numbered series of 8Styrofoam Box

Packaging

Consume

Trompe L'oeil

Painted Bronze

Unique un-numbered series of 8 Styrofoam Box

Installation info: Neon Craft spec:1 set of (Blue 4) neon numbers in 15mm glass to read "7,201,964,238" height of number "7" 925mm over all spread of installation 8.5m x 1.26m tall (to be fitted onto the frame with cetral height of 1.5m) including 1 off 10/50 and 1 off 6/50 transformers with protection built in. double insulated HT cables, Supports and Electrode covers to suit.  See notes regarding internal install parts included in casing for Yard at CCA (June 2015)First mounted on the exterior of the Bowes Museum’s iconic façade in 2014 for the solo exhibition 'Seven Billion Two Hundred and One Million Nine Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand and Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight', Turk’s monumental neon sign broadcasts the number 7,201,964,238; the specific median population of planet Earth at the time both the exhibition and the work itself opened on the 25th January 2014 at 6pm.Set high above the museum’s main entrance, Turk’s sign is a symbolic threshold: inviting visitors to transcend through a fixed point in time, bearing testimony to each individual’s solitude, power, and transient existence as part of an unimaginably expansive whole. "This monumental neon sign broadcasts the number 7,201,964,238; the specific median human population at the time the work itself opened on the 24th January 2014 at 6pm. Turk’s sign is a symbolic threshold: inviting visitors to transcend through a fixed point in time, a broken clock referring to a historical moment in our exponential growth as a species.  Like On Kawara’s date artworks here is a recording of the now (passed), a pause for thought captured in the gas of the neon. Electricity passes through the gas in the tube exciting the electrons which convert into photons that light up. The Neon light itself is a symbol of consumer culture: alluding to the objects of desire beyond it.  It’s a hand written sign as if by Mario Merz as part of his Fibonacci series. The geometry and geography of nature repeated in patterned sequences - in plants, seeds, crustaceans and leaf growth. Here encapsulating the human condition. We are one – the individual as part of the masses. The large number equals one." Gavin Turk, 2015

We Are One

Blue neon

Installation info: Neon Craft spec:1 set of (Blue 4) neon numbers in 15mm glass to read "7,201,964,238" height of number "7" 925mm over all spread of installation 8.5m x 1.26m tall (to be fitted onto the frame with cetral height of 1.5m) including 1 off 10/50 and 1 off 6/50 transformers with protection built in. double insulated HT cables, Supports and Electrode covers to suit. See notes regarding internal install parts included in casing for Yard at CCA (June 2015)First mounted on the exterior of the Bowes Museum’s iconic façade in 2014 for the solo exhibition 'Seven Billion Two Hundred and One Million Nine Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand and Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight', Turk’s monumental neon sign broadcasts the number 7,201,964,238; the specific median population of planet Earth at the time both the exhibition and the work itself opened on the 25th January 2014 at 6pm.Set high above the museum’s main entrance, Turk’s sign is a symbolic threshold: inviting visitors to transcend through a fixed point in time, bearing testimony to each individual’s solitude, power, and transient existence as part of an unimaginably expansive whole. "This monumental neon sign broadcasts the number 7,201,964,238; the specific median human population at the time the work itself opened on the 24th January 2014 at 6pm. Turk’s sign is a symbolic threshold: inviting visitors to transcend through a fixed point in time, a broken clock referring to a historical moment in our exponential growth as a species. Like On Kawara’s date artworks here is a recording of the now (passed), a pause for thought captured in the gas of the neon. Electricity passes through the gas in the tube exciting the electrons which convert into photons that light up. The Neon light itself is a symbol of consumer culture: alluding to the objects of desire beyond it. It’s a hand written sign as if by Mario Merz as part of his Fibonacci series. The geometry and geography of nature repeated in patterned sequences - in plants, seeds, crustaceans and leaf growth. Here encapsulating the human condition. We are one – the individual as part of the masses. The large number equals one." Gavin Turk, 2015

Signs

Installation info: Neon Craft spec: 1 set of (Blue 4) neon numbers in 15mm glass to read "7,201,964,238" height of number "7" 925mm over all spread of installation 8.5m x 1.26m tall (to be fitted onto the frame with cetral height of 1.5m) including 1 off 10/50 and 1 off 6/50 transformers with protection built in. double insulated HT cables, Supports and Electrode covers to suit.

100 Years

Found sheet of mouldy paper

Rubbish

Work on paper

American Bag

Bin Bags

Black holes burning through our retinas like staring at the sun, the charcoal-like mark of the exhaust in a feat of comical automatic drawing. The fart of the car, like a contemporary cave drawing, encapsulating the ironies of our age: waste made exquisite – T. S. Eliot would have approved. The central altarpiece in this room absorbing the power of the human to give and to take away.

Emission Edition

Exhaust emissions on canvas

Exhaust

Smoke

Vehicles

Stain

Black holes burning through our retinas like staring at the sun, the charcoal-like mark of the exhaust in a feat of comical automatic drawing. The fart of the car, like a contemporary cave drawing, encapsulating the ironies of our age: waste made exquisite – T. S. Eliot would have approved. The central altarpiece in this room absorbing the power of the human to give and to take away.

Geometric Surface

Recycled egg tray

A piece of drift wood found by Gavin Turk on a trip to Hong Kong, suitably reminiscent of the traditional Chinese ornament.

Gongshi

Wood & clay

GT Hens Eggs

The idea for this artwork was to completely wrap a car in canvas and allow it to become a painting by exposing it to the elements. Over the course of its journeys, the car would become marked with dust particles, exhaust fumes, mud, and other accidental or weather-induced stains.

The car was unveiled as part of the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair in June, where Gavin also sold a unique edition of 50 pieces called Emission Edition. The pieces were created by holding a canvas against an exhaust pipe and then accelerating, the soot from the exhaust leaving a unique mark on each canvas.

Mummy

Car and canvas

The idea for this artwork was to completely wrap a car in canvas and allow it to become a painting by exposing it to the elements. Over the course of its journeys, the car would become marked with dust particles, exhaust fumes, mud, and other accidental or weather-induced stains. The car was unveiled as part of the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair in June, where Gavin also sold a unique edition of 50 pieces called Emission Edition. The pieces were created by holding a canvas against an exhaust pipe and then accelerating, the soot from the exhaust leaving a unique mark on each canvas.

Wrapped

Transit

The idea for this artwork was to completely wrap a car in canvas and allow it to become a painting by exposing it to the elements. Over the course of its journeys, the car would become marked with dust particles, exhaust fumes, mud, and other accidental or weather-induced stains.