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.

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Related Artworks

Triptych