Playworn Pig

Enamel, acrylic, wood and fibreglass

Trompe L'oeil

Animalia

Public Sculpture

Disembodied from any room, structure or building, this ‘larger than life’ painted bronze door, is freestanding, open at 45°’s to the frame. This internal wooden door now placed in the park has different colours painted on each side, the door shows signs of age and wear which are painted onto its surface. Its giant bronze door handle and keyhole seem to shrink the viewer. ‘I continued to look at the flowers, and in their living light I seemed to detect the qualitative equivalent of breathing -but of a breathing without returns to a starting point, with no recurrent ebbs but only a repeated flow from beauty to heightened beauty, from deeper to ever deeper meaning.’ - Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception This work invokes Magritte’s painting ‘La Victoire’ and the title references Luis Bunuel’s surreal film of the same name. It is a playful surrealist public artwork that the audience enjoys interacting with as a gateway to their imagination. L’Âge d’Or teases the audience to question notions of home, security, architecture and also the bolder concepts of inside and outside. The work can also be seen in the context of Marcel Duchamp’s door in rue Larrey and Jasper Johns’ painted bronze Ballentine beer cans. Question: When is a door not a door? Answer: When it’s ajar

L'Âge d'Or (Green & Red)

Painted bronze

Disembodied from any room, structure or building, this ‘larger than life’ painted bronze door, is freestanding, open at 45°’s to the frame. This internal wooden door now placed in the park has different colours painted on each side, the door shows signs of age and wear which are painted onto its surface. Its giant bronze door handle and keyhole seem to shrink the viewer. ‘I continued to look at the flowers, and in their living light I seemed to detect the qualitative equivalent of breathing -but of a breathing without returns to a starting point, with no recurrent ebbs but only a repeated flow from beauty to heightened beauty, from deeper to ever deeper meaning.’ - Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception This work invokes Magritte’s painting ‘La Victoire’ and the title references Luis Bunuel’s surreal film of the same name. It is a playful surrealist public artwork that the audience enjoys interacting with as a gateway to their imagination. L’Âge d’Or teases the audience to question notions of home, security, architecture and also the bolder concepts of inside and outside. The work can also be seen in the context of Marcel Duchamp’s door in rue Larrey and Jasper Johns’ painted bronze Ballentine beer cans. Question: When is a door not a door? Answer: When it’s ajar

Doors

Fate

Duchamp

Infinity

Disembodied from any room, structure or building, this ‘larger than life’ painted bronze door, is freestanding, open at 45°’s to the frame. This internal wooden door now placed in the park has different colours painted on each side, the door shows signs of age and wear which are painted onto its surface. Its giant bronze door handle and keyhole seem to shrink the viewer.

Ariadne Wrapped Maquette

Ariadne (Wrapped Waste)

Ariadne

209 words The Spirit of Painting: Mysteriously landing on the cupola of the Coronet Theatre during the quiet of a global pandemic, a lonely figure poses in the adlocutio stance of an Emperor in ancient Rome addressing his troops. Contra to this heroic posture, this figure portrays the artist in his studio overalls painting the sky with a paintbrush instead of sword, palette as shield. Originally designed to have a sculpture of Mercury on the roof of the theatre, now the messenger God of commerce has become a prophetic painter of our current hubris. ‘I imagined being ‘in’ the sky, I thought of an oversized paint splattered stepladder on the roof, to help a giant decorator to paint the clouds or change the earth’s light bulb (sun)’ Gavin Turk Gavin Turk uses art historical referencing as a material to question art itself. This figure takes its form from Alfred Drury’s sculpture of Sir Joshua Reynolds, a familiar iconic statue grand-standing in the courtyard of The Royal Academy. Where the Drury sculpture portrays the first president of the RA as a member of the establishment, this contemporary classic presents the artist as artisanal workman. At this time of fierce debate around public sculpture this portrait brings a new provocation to the conversation. ----------- 117 words The Spirit of Painting: On the cupola of the Coronet Theatre, this sculpture portrays the adlocutio stance. Instead of an Emperor addressing his troops, this figure portrays the artist in his studio overalls painting the sky with a paintbrush instead of sword, palette as shield. Originally designed to have a sculpture of Mercury on the roof of the theatre, now the messenger God of commerce has become a prophetic painter of our current hubris. ‘I imagined a decorator en plein air painting the clouds’ Gavin Turk This figure takes its form from Alfred Drury’s sculpture of Sir Joshua Reynolds the first president of the RA, instead this contemporary classic presents the artist as artisanal workman.

Spirit of Painting

Painted aluminium

209 words The Spirit of Painting:Mysteriously landing on the cupola of the Coronet Theatre during the quiet of a global pandemic, a lonely figure poses in the adlocutio stance of an Emperor in ancient Rome addressing his troops. Contra to this heroic posture, this figure portrays the artist in his studio overalls painting the sky with a paintbrush instead of sword, palette as shield. Originally designed to have a sculpture of Mercury on the roof of the theatre, now the messenger God of commerce has become a prophetic painter of our current hubris. ‘I imagined being ‘in’ the sky, I thought of an oversized paint splattered stepladder on the roof, to help a giant decorator to paint the clouds or change the earth’s light bulb (sun)’Gavin Turk Gavin Turk uses art historical referencing as a material to question art itself. This figure takes its form from Alfred Drury’s sculpture of Sir Joshua Reynolds, a familiar iconic statue grand-standing in the courtyard of The Royal Academy. Where the Drury sculpture portrays the first president of the RA as a member of the establishment, this contemporary classic presents the artist as artisanal workman. At this time of fierce debate around public sculpture this portrait brings a new provocation to the conversation. -----------117 wordsThe Spirit of Painting:On the cupola of the Coronet Theatre, this sculpture portrays the adlocutio stance. Instead of an Emperor addressing his troops, this figure portrays the artist in his studio overalls painting the sky with a paintbrush instead of sword, palette as shield. Originally designed to have a sculpture of Mercury on the roof of the theatre, now the messenger God of commerce has become a prophetic painter of our current hubris. ‘I imagined a decorator en plein air painting the clouds’ Gavin Turk This figure takes its form from Alfred Drury’s sculpture of Sir Joshua Reynolds the first president of the RA, instead this contemporary classic presents the artist as artisanal workman.

Identity

Masks

Self-Portrait

Faces

209 words The Spirit of Painting: Mysteriously landing on the cupola of the Coronet Theatre during the quiet of a global pandemic, a lonely figure poses in the adlocutio stance of an Emperor in ancient Rome addressing his troops. Contra to this heroic posture, this figure portrays the artist in his studio overalls painting the sky with a paintbrush instead of sword, palette as shield. Originally designed to have a sculpture of Mercury on the roof of the theatre, now the messenger God of commerce has become a prophetic painter of our current hubris.

Gavin Turk’s Axis Mundi, a cover for the new ecological bore hole at Paddington Basin is a out of scale bronze facsimile of a traditional well-used sink plug. Referencing the work is Bouche-evier a work by Marcel Duchamp the cast of a plug hole. The name of the sculpture Axis Mundi means ‘Centre of the Earth’ (the point between heaven and earth where the four compass points meet), reminiscent of the Socle du Monde by Piero Manzoni. The work continues in the spirit of the artists previous public art commissions, which include a 12m bronze ‘Nail’ outside St Paul’s Cathedral and a series of freestanding painted bronze doors ‘L’Âge d’Or’ and ‘Ajar’.

Axis Mundi

Patinated bronze and steel

Latest Edit 2020:Gavin Turk’s Axis Mundi, a cover for the new ecological bore hole at Paddington Basin is a out of scale bronze facsimile of a traditional well-used sink plug. Referencing the work is Bouche-evier a work by Marcel Duchamp the cast of a plug hole. The name of the sculpture Axis Mundi means ‘Centre of the Earth’ (the point between heaven and earth where the four compass points meet), reminiscent of the Socle du Monde by Piero Manzoni. The work continues in the spirit of the artists previous public art commissions, which include a 12m bronze ‘Nail’ outside St Paul’s Cathedral and a series of freestanding painted bronze doors ‘L’Âge d’Or’ and ‘Ajar’. -----------------Gavin Turk plays with Trompe-l’Oeil and the illusion of art – encouraging the audience to question what they are seeing as well as what they value. His public works invite the passers-by to look at the world through the eyes of an artist. For Paddington Basin he has taken the witty humour of street art and loaded it with the craftsmanship and references of art history. He has created an artfully obvious cover for the new ecological bore hole by creating an out of scale facsimile of a traditional well-used sink plug. Layered in the artist’s work is Bouche-evier (Sink Stopper) a work by Marcel Duchamp which is a life sized cast of a plug hole as well as Socle du Monde by Piero Manzoni. Gavin Turk’s bronze plug is an industrial scale sculpture resembling an aged and historic giant plug which is both a whimsical artwork in a public landscape as well as having the functional purpose of a lid to the bore hole below. The work continues in the spirit of the artists previous public art commissions, which include a 12m bronze nail outside St Paul’s Cathedral and a series of freestanding painted bronze door frames referencing Magritte – both with poetic narratives engaging the audience. The name of the sculpture Axis Mundi means ‘ Centre of the Earth’ (the point between heaven and earth where the four compass points meet), which draws attention to the symbolism of the borehole and current human activity whilst being a playful reminder of the buildings location in the symbolically named Paddington Basin during this urgent and fragile time for climate and the environment.

Gavin Turk’s Axis Mundi, a cover for the new ecological bore hole at Paddington Basin is a out of scale bronze facsimile of a traditional well-used sink plug. Referencing the work is Bouche-evier a work by Marcel Duchamp the cast of a plug hole. The name of the sculpture Axis Mundi means ‘Centre of the Earth’ (the point between heaven and earth where the four compass points meet), reminiscent of the Socle du Monde by Piero Manzoni.

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) 

Magritte

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) 

Both comic and provocative, Nail is a 12 metre bronze sculpture, treated as the title implies, to appear like a giant rusty nail. Standing at the entrance to French architect, Jean Nouvel’s shiny glass shopping centre, One New Change with the grand sixteenth century architecture of St Paul’s cathedral in the background, Nail is hammered between the ancient and modern. At the intersection of these two worlds, Nail is a nostalgic recollection of tools traditionally used by the construction industry and favoured by Turk’s archetypal white van man, now of less and less necessity in the modern architecture of One New Change. Its rustiness, meanwhile underscores the uselessness of this once useful object, while also suggesting the creep of the natural into the territory of the man-made. Not only a literal object, the nail doubles as a psychological object which suggests “nail in the coffin” and “nailed to the cross.” Rather more humorously, viewed from a certain angle, Nail appears to pin One New Change into the ground, although viewed from other angles, it hints at the empty space where what was nailed has long since been removed. A giant magnification of a miniature object, the closer the viewer stands to Nail, the more comically abstract the object appears, as by contrast, both the viewer and its surroundings appear to shrink.

Nail

Bronze - Permanent sculpture

Illusion

Both comic and provocative, Nail is a 12 metre bronze sculpture, treated as the title implies, to appear like a giant rusty nail. Standing at the entrance to French architect, Jean Nouvel’s shiny glass shopping centre, One New Change with the grand sixteenth century architecture of St Paul’s cathedral in the background, Nail is hammered between the ancient and modern.

Somebody’s Son (2007) is a waxwork of the artist as a Queen’s guard in his sentry box. Resembling an oversized toy from a souvenir shop, the caricature with his absurd and darkly comic uniform and deadly machine gun stands encumbered by his huge bearskin protuberance – the artist’s face peering out from behind the chinstrap. The title embues a sense of loss, whilst these highly trained soldiers, used as cultural decoration, escape the active duty of war.

Somebody’s Son

Waxwork in wooden sentry box

Somebody’s Son (2007) is a waxwork of the artist as a Queen’s guard in his sentry box. Resembling an oversized toy from a souvenir shop, the caricature with his absurd and darkly comic uniform and deadly machine gun stands encumbered by his huge bearskin protuberance – the artist’s face peering out from behind the chinstrap. The title embues a sense of loss, whilst these highly trained soldiers, used as cultural decoration, escape the active duty of war.

Icons

Flaneur

Desert Island Scenario

Carved mahogany

Domestic

A loosely worked sculpture of reclining woman lying on a double plinth based on De Chirico's paintings of ‘Ariadne’.

Stainless steel, marble dust & painted cement

A loosely worked sculpture of reclining woman lying on a double plinth based on De Chirico's paintings of ‘Ariadne’.

A giant fibreglass egg painted to look like a wild turkey's egg. Turk has produced several of these large forms, based on the eggs of different bird species. The first of these works was commissioned for the 2001 exhibition ‘DEAD”, organized by the artist-led group Welfare State International. The exhibition explored alternative, celebratory approaches to the taboo of death, and each artist was invited to create non-traditional versions of the cultural trappings that surround death. Turk created ‘Coffin’, later re-titled ‘Oeuvre’. The collective title of the subsequent series of giant birds’ egg sculpture – ‘Oeuvre (Hen)’, ‘Oeuvre (Duck)’ etc – plays on the similarity between the word for the life’s work of an artist, ‘Oeuvre’, and the French word for egg, ‘oeuf’.

Oeuvre (Wild Turkey)

Painted fibreglass

Eggs

A giant fibreglass egg painted to look like a wild turkey's egg.

A giant fibreglass egg painted to look like a speckled hen's egg.Turk has produced several of these large forms, based on the eggs of different bird species. The first of these works was commissioned for the 2001 exhibition ‘DEAD”, organized by the artist-led group Welfare State International. The exhibition explored alternative, celebratory approaches to the taboo of death, and each artist was invited to create non-traditional versions of the cultural trappings that surround death. Turk created ‘Coffin’, later re-titled ‘Oeuvre’. The collective title of the subsequent series of giant birds’ egg sculpture – ‘Oeuvre (Hen)’, ‘Oeuvre (Duck)’ etc – plays on the similarity between the word for the life’s work of an artist, ‘Oeuvre’, and the French word for egg, ‘oeuf’.