Door Painting

Oil and acrylic on canvas

Art History

Doors

Magritte

Oil paint on mirror polished stainless steel

Illusion

Trompe L'oeil

Painting

Reflections in a Window

Widower

Oil on linen

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) 

Painted bronze

Public Sculpture

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) 

A painting based on Magrittes

Ceci ne’st pas une pipe.

Ceci n&rsquo;est pas un l

Diamond dust and acrylic paint on canvas

Acrylic paint and diamond dust on canvas

Forgery

Appropriation

A painting based on Magrittes Ceci ne’st pas une pipe.

Ceci n'est pas un l

Installation info: To be shown on a free standing plinth, without ridge on top, unlike in photo. Previously museum wax has been used to balance sculpture upright.  If this is to be repeated take care to avoid applying this near the signature underneath as the wax will smudge it.An object that resembles a smoking pipe found and displayed by the artist in reference to Magritte & Duchamp. This readymade was found by the artist; a u-bend from a drain, a transition point between private and public waste disposal. The seal to prevent contamination of smells and germs between the individual and civic pace, the shape is also reminiscent of a toilet bowl or the philosopher’s tobacco pipe. The male accessory of traditional patriarchal values displayed as a decrepit old tube.

Drainpipe

Ceramic and cast iron

Installation info: To be shown on a free standing plinth, without ridge on top, unlike in photo. Previously museum wax has been used to balance sculpture upright. If this is to be repeated take care to avoid applying this near the signature underneath as the wax will smudge it.An object that resembles a smoking pipe found and displayed by the artist in reference to Magritte & Duchamp. This readymade was found by the artist; a u-bend from a drain, a transition point between private and public waste disposal. The seal to prevent contamination of smells and germs between the individual and civic pace, the shape is also reminiscent of a toilet bowl or the philosopher’s tobacco pipe. The male accessory of traditional patriarchal values displayed as a decrepit old tube.

Readymade

Waste

Pipes

Duchamp

Found Object

Installation info: To be shown on a free standing plinth, without ridge on top, unlike in photo. Previously museum wax has been used to balance sculpture upright. If this is to be repeated take care to avoid applying this near the signature underneath as the wax will smudge it. An object that resembles a smoking pipe found and displayed by the artist in reference to Magritte & Duchamp. This readymade was found by the artist; a u-bend from a drain, a transition point between private and public waste disposal.

An object that resembles a smoking pipe found and displayed by the artist in reference to Magritte &amp; Duchamp. This readymade was found by the artist; a u-bend from a drain, a transition point between private and public waste disposal. The seal to prevent contamination of smells and germs between the individual and civic pace, the shape is also reminiscent of a toilet bowl or the philosopher&rsquo;s tobacco pipe. The male accessory of traditional patriarchal values displayed as a decrepit old tube.

Found object on a plinth

Fool

An object that resembles a smoking pipe found and displayed by the artist in reference to Magritte & Duchamp. This readymade was found by the artist; a u-bend from a drain, a transition point between private and public waste disposal. The seal to prevent contamination of smells and germs between the individual and civic pace, the shape is also reminiscent of a toilet bowl or the philosopher’s tobacco pipe. The male accessory of traditional patriarchal values displayed as a decrepit old tube.

A giant egg covered with hare pelt placed on bricks made of wood in reference to Magritte, Brancusi, Manzoni, Andre and Beuys. Following 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.

Hare Egg

Hare pelt, fibreglass and wood

Eggs

Animalia

Hair

Sculpture

A giant egg covered with hare pelt placed on bricks made of wood in reference to Magritte, Brancusi, Manzoni, Andre and Beuys.

A giant egg covered with black rabbit pelt placed on a wood brick plinth in reference to Meret Oppenheim, Rene Magritte, Constantin Brancusi, Piero Manzoni, Carl Andre and Joseph Beuys.

Duck Rabbit (Black)

Rabbit pelt, fibreglass and wood

A giant egg covered with black rabbit pelt placed on a wood brick plinth in reference to Meret Oppenheim, Rene Magritte, Constantin Brancusi, Piero Manzoni, Carl Andre and Joseph Beuys.

A giant egg covered with white rabbit pelt placed on four solid oak blocks in reference to Meret Oppenheim, Rene Magritte, Constantin Brancusi, Piero Manzoni, Carl Andre and Joseph Beuys.

Duck Rabbit

A giant egg covered with white rabbit pelt placed on four solid oak blocks in reference to Meret Oppenheim, Rene Magritte, Constantin Brancusi, Piero Manzoni, Carl Andre and Joseph Beuys.

A Fauvist style painting of a glass of water Inspired by Rene Magrittes 'Vache' period paintings.

Vache glass

A Fauvist style painting of a glass of water Inspired by Rene Magrittes 'Vache' period paintings.

A bronze cast of a melon, half painted in realist style with the skin surface of a classic watermelon, the other half blended into a briar wood paint pattern similar to that of an old fashioned pipe like that used by Magritte. The is an alchemy piece. It is the transmutation of a melon into briar wood (traditionally used to make pipes) but then you realize that it is actually made of bronze. The layers of material meaning multiply, until you are no longer sure of what you are looking at. The Artist has made many pieces of art inspired by the street. Cardboard boxes (‘Brillo’, 2002), bin bags in bronze (‘Bag’, 2001) and ‘Nomad’ (a figure in a sleeping bag cast in bronze). All these works are questioning value and status. The melon pieces are quirkier than that, watermelons having saucy, colloquial associations because of their size and succulence. But they are also a vegetable-like fruit often put on the floor outside shops because of their size. An urban boulder. The melon is not indigenous to this country and therefore represents the exotic: the unknown.

Wood ‘n’ Melon

A bronze cast of a melon, half painted in realist style with the skin surface of a classic watermelon, the other half blended into a briar wood paint pattern similar to that of an old fashioned pipe like that used by Magritte. The is an alchemy piece. It is the transmutation of a melon into briar wood (traditionally used to make pipes) but then you realize that it is actually made of bronze. The layers of material meaning multiply, until you are no longer sure of what you are looking at. The Artist has made many pieces of art inspired by the street. Cardboard boxes (‘Brillo’, 2002), bin bags in bronze (‘Bag’, 2001) and ‘Nomad’ (a figure in a sleeping bag cast in bronze). All these works are questioning value and status. The melon pieces are quirkier than that, watermelons having saucy, colloquial associations because of their size and succulence. But they are also a vegetable-like fruit often put on the floor outside shops because of their size. An urban boulder. The melon is not indigenous to this country and therefore represents the exotic: the unknown.

Food

Painted Bronze

A bronze cast of a melon, half painted in realist style with the skin surface of a classic watermelon, the other half blended into a briar wood paint pattern similar to that of an old fashioned pipe like that used by Magritte. The is an alchemy piece. It is the transmutation of a melon into briar wood (traditionally used to make pipes) but then you realize that it is actually made of bronze. The layers of material meaning multiply, until you are no longer sure of what you are looking at. The Artist has made many pieces of art inspired by the street.

Painted bronze bust of the Artist with a shotgun nose inspired by the Magritte portrait 'Oscar'.This rather curious looking character with bulging eggs for eyes and a shotgun nose is taken from a Magritte painting ‘L’ellipse’. He has become a self portrait turned 2D to 3D and cast in bronze and then painted with all the lurid and clashing colours of the original. Magritte is one of the most striking and consistent of the so-called surrealists and his imagery permeated the Artist’s work His child-like painting syle produces image after image of the familiar meeting the unfamiliar. Like dreams that take the realities of the day and collage them into impossible yet highly plausible scenarios, Magritte expresses his subconscious on canvas. Oscar is a character from a period of his life called by critics his ‘Vache’ or ‘Renoir’ period, when he appeared to be reacting against the controlled, meticulous and tranquil clocks and pipes and moustaches: the signifiers of ordered civilized European society. Suddenly he got expressive and violent – but with humour.The violent imagery of the shotgun impotently and Pinnochio-like in place of a nose (sneezing out the bullets), juxtaposed with the spooky eye peering from the bowler hat – symbol of power and professionalism and of course the grown-up gentleman’s ill fitting check suit. This contrasts with the fay positioning of the back to front hands offering up – or is it pleading in supplication?

Oscar (Yellow Face)

Painted bronze self portrait (after Magritte)

Self-Portrait

Painted bronze bust of the Artist with a shotgun nose inspired by the Magritte portrait 'Oscar'.

A bronze figure of gnomic image taken from the Magritte painting 'le stropiat' with several pipes sticking out of his face, displayed in a large vitrine and heated in such a way that through a smoke-filled cabinet it could be detected by an infrared camera.

Smokey Joe

Painted bronze, smoke, infared camera, screen & vitrine

Smoke

A bronze figure of gnomic image taken from the Magritte painting 'le stropiat' with several pipes sticking out of his face, displayed in a large vitrine and heated in such a way that through a smoke-filled cabinet it could be detected by an infrared camera.

Automaton

Painted bronze bust of the Artist with a shotgun nose inspired by the Magritte portrait 'Oscar'.

This rather curious looking character with bulging eggs for eyes and a shotgun nose is taken from a Magritte painting ‘L’ellipse’. He has become a self portrait turned 2D to 3D and cast in bronze and then painted with all the lurid and clashing colours of the original. Magritte is one of the most striking and consistent of the so-called surrealists and his imagery permeated the Artist’s work His child-like painting syle produces image after image of the familiar meeting the unfamiliar. Like dreams that take the realities of the day and collage them into impossible yet highly plausible scenarios, Magritte expresses his subconscious on canvas. Oscar is a character from a period of his life called by critics his ‘Vache’ or ‘Renoir’ period, when he appeared to be reacting against the controlled, meticulous and tranquil clocks and pipes and moustaches: the signifiers of ordered civilized European society. Suddenly he got expressive and violent – but with humour.

 
The violent imagery of the shotgun impotently and Pinnochio-like in place of a nose (sneezing out the bullets), juxtaposed with the spooky eye peering from the bowler hat – symbol of power and professionalism and of course the grown-up gentleman’s ill fitting check suit. This contrasts with the fay positioning of the back to front hands offering up – or is it pleading in supplication?

Oscar III

A painted bronze bust of the artist with a shotgun nose inspired by Magritte’s Oscar.This rather curious looking character with bulging eggs for eyes and a shotgun nose is taken from a Magritte painting ‘L’ellipse’. He has become a self portrait turned 2D to 3D and cast in bronze and then painted with all the lurid and clashing colours of the original. Magritte is one of the most striking and consistent of the so-called surrealists and his imagery permeated the Artist’s work His child-like painting syle produces image after image of the familiar meeting the unfamiliar. Like dreams that take the realities of the day and collage them into impossible yet highly plausible scenarios, Magritte expresses his subconscious on canvas. Oscar is a character from a period of his life called by critics his ‘Vache’ or ‘Renoir’ period, when he appeared to be reacting against the controlled, meticulous and tranquil clocks and pipes and moustaches: the signifiers of ordered civilized European society. Suddenly he got expressive and violent – but with humour.The violent imagery of the shotgun impotently and Pinnochio-like in place of a nose (sneezing out the bullets), juxtaposed with the spooky eye peering from the bowler hat – symbol of power and professionalism and of course the grown-up gentleman’s ill fitting check suit. This contrasts with the fay positioning of the back to front hands offering up – or is it pleading in supplication?

Masks

Faces

The Artists proof from the making of the photographic artwork

Godot

painted over with oil to give the figure a check jacket, bowler hat and several smoking pipes. In

Godot,

The Artist "re-cycles" a Magritte self-portrait which features an apple - symbol of secret knowledge from the Garden of Eden - instead of a human head. In Turk's interpretation, instead of an apple, on The Artist's neck sits a chicken's egg. A recurring theme in Turk's work, eggs are symbols of new life and new ideas. What ideas even now are hatching in The Artist's mind? What new life/meaning has Turk given to the original Magritte painting? Meanwhile, the title of the piece refers to Samuel Beckett's famous absurdist play,

Waiting For Godot.

Is Godot, the possibly redemptive, possibly fictitious mystery character for whom The Artist also is waiting. (For what? To give him The Answer? Inspiration? A hotline to The Truth?). Or is The Artist, as the title more directly suggests, the nebulous Godot himself? Acquiring even more layers of meaning,

Godot's Day Off

goes further. Here, the egg head is both surreally - and indeed apparently serenely - smoking multiple pipes in a homage not only to Magritte but also Duchamp, both of whom were famous pipe smokers but also Magritte's famous surrealist joke,

Ce N'Est Pas Une Pipe

(This Is Not A Pipe) - a drawing of a pipe which questions the notion of representation. Meanwhile, pipe-smoking itself stands for intellectual contemplation and pausing to think. Gentlemen - especially old fashioned ones - tend to smoke pipes. They also tend to wear the traditional English bowler hat. This bowler hat hints at not only the English intellectual but the English establishment - to which the artist may or may not belong - and also to the English stiff upper lip. The Third Eye in the centre of the bowler hat, meanwhile, subverts this institutionalisation of intellectual ideas with its proposition not only of a psychic window onto the soul but also onto the mystery and the enigma of The Truth.

Godot&rsquo;s Day Off

Oil on C-type print

Godot

Photographic Work

The Artists proof from the making of the photographic artwork Godot painted over with oil to give the figure a check jacket, bowler hat and several smoking pipes. In Godot,

Godot's Day Off

A painted bronze bust of the artist with a shotgun nose inspired by Magritte&rsquo;s Oscar.This rather curious looking character with bulging eggs for eyes and a shotgun nose is taken from a Magritte painting &lsquo;L&rsquo;ellipse&rsquo;. He has become a self portrait turned 2D to 3D and cast in bronze and then painted with all the lurid and clashing colours of the original. Magritte is one of the most striking and consistent of the so-called surrealists and his imagery permeated the Artist&rsquo;s work His child-like painting syle produces image after image of the familiar meeting the unfamiliar. Like dreams that take the realities of the day and collage them into impossible yet highly plausible scenarios, Magritte expresses his subconscious on canvas. Oscar is a character from a period of his life called by critics his &lsquo;Vache&rsquo; or &lsquo;Renoir&rsquo; period, when he appeared to be reacting against the controlled, meticulous and tranquil clocks and pipes and moustaches: the signifiers of ordered civilized European society. Suddenly he got expressive and violent &ndash; but with humour. The violent imagery of the shotgun impotently and Pinnochio-like in place of a nose (sneezing out the bullets), juxtaposed with the spooky eye peering from the bowler hat &ndash; symbol of power and professionalism and of course the grown-up gentleman&rsquo;s ill fitting check suit. This contrasts with the fay positioning of the back to front hands offering up &ndash; or is it pleading in supplication?

Oscar

A painted bronze bust of the artist with a shotgun nose inspired by Magritte’s Oscar.

A bronze figure of gnomic image taken from the Magritte painting 'le stropiat'  with several pipes sticking out of his face.

Cripple III

A bronze figure of gnomic image taken from the Magritte painting 'le stropiat' with several pipes sticking out of his face.

A bronze figure of gnomic image taken from the Magritte painting 'le stropiat' with several pipes sticking out of his face.

Cripple

Cripple I

Cripple II

A school style blackboard marked with chalk, with the word ‘nature’ scripted in mayonnaise.

Nature

Wood framed blackboard, chalk & mayonnaise

A school style blackboard marked with chalk, with the word ‘nature’ scripted in mayonnaise.