'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 vacform plastic reproduction of the artist's original blue plaque installation of the same title.

Cave

Silkscreen on plastic

Celebrity

Death

Artist

Sculpture

A vacform plastic reproduction of the artist's original blue plaque installation of the same title.

Cave (edition)

An invitation card from the artists degree show, showing the Union Jack taken from the cover of the ‘Sun’ newspaper, with the Artists face printed over the top wearing a beret.

This postcard accompanied Turk’s degree exhibition (where he exhibited ‘Cave’). The image is based on the front page of the British tabloid The Sun, which, on the eve of the first Gulf War in 1991, superimposed the head of a British soldier onto the Union Jack. Its headline ran: ‘Support our boys and put this flag in your window’. Turk replaced the squaddie’s head with his own, so that the beret referred to artists rather than soldiers. At the time the British media were notoriously hostile to ‘modern’ art, and Turk couldn’t resist suggesting that the press might promote artists as positive national symbols as much as they support the military.

Window

Printed image on card

An invitation card from the artists degree show, showing the Union Jack taken from the cover of the ‘Sun’ newspaper, with the Artists face printed over the top wearing a beret. This postcard accompanied Turk’s degree exhibition (where he exhibited ‘Cave’). The image is based on the front page of the British tabloid The Sun, which, on the eve of the first Gulf War in 1991, superimposed the head of a British soldier onto the Union Jack. Its headline ran: ‘Support our boys and put this flag in your window’. Turk replaced the squaddie’s head with his own, so that the beret referred to artists rather than soldiers. At the time the British media were notoriously hostile to ‘modern’ art, and Turk couldn’t resist suggesting that the press might promote artists as positive national symbols as much as they support the military.

Flags

Self-Portrait

Masks

Faces

Work on paper

An invitation card from the artists degree show, showing the Union Jack taken from the cover of the ‘Sun’ newspaper, with the Artists face printed over the top wearing a beret.

A glass top vitrine containing a beret and the front page of the ‘Sun’ newspaper portraying the artist as a soldier wearing the beret printed over the Union Jack flag.

Study for Window

Beret, newspaper & colour photocopy in glass top vitrine

Beret, newspaper & colour photocopy in vitrine

A glass top vitrine containing a beret and the front page of the ‘Sun’ newspaper portraying the artist as a soldier wearing the beret printed over the Union Jack flag.