Transit Mirror

Cracked Transit Mirror

Mirrors

Transit

Vehicles

In the early 1960s, Michelangelo Pistoletto made his first mirror paintings. They weren’t really mirrors, as they were done on large sheets of polished steel, and they weren’t really paintings, because the ‘floating’ figures they depicted were photographs printed on tissue (and later silk screens) applied to the metal surfaces. What they were – and still are – was platforms which spectacularly embodied the world (and all its artifice) through their reflection. The same could be said for Gavin Turk;  who not only appropriates historical artists’ works, but their entire mythologies, for his own-brand celebrity, refracting art world legends – such as Pistoletto’s mirror paintings – for democratized progress and use.  Substituting Pistoletto’s casually posed models with his own trademark bin bag – a punk-ethos anti-logo Turk’s previously reproduced in prints and stickers, monumentalised in trompe l’œuil bronze sculptures – Turk literally overlays Pistoletto’s legacy with his own. Maths being a favoured systematology in Arte Povera’s metaphysical quest, Turk revitalizes and trumps Pistoletto’s epitomized art/life merger with the end-game logic of +1. Mirror + bin bag, Pistoletto + Turk = art’s tautological lineage, performative re-enactment, and a certain Darwinian progress of artistic ego. But most importantly +1, by its very essence, is infinite.For Pistoletto, his ‘paintings’ functioned something like real-time theatre: his static figures wittily claiming the reflected gallery space as a stage, and viewers as veritas subjects; his mirrors less objects than mystical portals to a parallel present. Humorously titled Pistoletto’s (Rubbish/Waste/Bag), Turk’s tributes reflect the now as a bridge between past and future – as both consequence and prescience – transposing the gallery to a scene of hyper-consumerist apocalypse, where garbage becomes elevated to masterpiece in the hallowed white cube, and artworks and viewers luxuriantly bask in their own expenditure. Turk’s bin bag motif was originally created in the late 1990s as part of a series of work engaging with themes of homelessness. Transferred to Pistoletto’s visionary 1960s framework – heavy mirror and inky decal today seem a quaintly Luddite attempt at virtuality – Turk offers the overlooked and discarded, redundant and obsolete, as provocatively contemporary proposals. Presented as a single panel, Pistoletto’s Rubbish (2013), simulates the format of an altarpiece: a site of reverence, of stark confrontation, of our cultural values, fetishizations, desires, and excesses; of the world – featuring ourselves, via brand-Turk, as transients in the spectacle.

Pistoletto's Rubbish

Screenprint on mirror finish stainless steel

In the early 1960s, Michelangelo Pistoletto made his first mirror paintings. They weren’t really mirrors, as they were done on large sheets of polished steel, and they weren’t really paintings, because the ‘floating’ figures they depicted were photographs printed on tissue (and later silk screens) applied to the metal surfaces. What they were – and still are – was platforms which spectacularly embodied the world (and all its artifice) through their reflection. The same could be said for Gavin Turk; who not only appropriates historical artists’ works, but their entire mythologies, for his own-brand celebrity, refracting art world legends – such as Pistoletto’s mirror paintings – for democratized progress and use. Substituting Pistoletto’s casually posed models with his own trademark bin bag – a punk-ethos anti-logo Turk’s previously reproduced in prints and stickers, monumentalised in trompe l’œuil bronze sculptures – Turk literally overlays Pistoletto’s legacy with his own. Maths being a favoured systematology in Arte Povera’s metaphysical quest, Turk revitalizes and trumps Pistoletto’s epitomized art/life merger with the end-game logic of +1. Mirror + bin bag, Pistoletto + Turk = art’s tautological lineage, performative re-enactment, and a certain Darwinian progress of artistic ego. But most importantly +1, by its very essence, is infinite.For Pistoletto, his ‘paintings’ functioned something like real-time theatre: his static figures wittily claiming the reflected gallery space as a stage, and viewers as veritas subjects; his mirrors less objects than mystical portals to a parallel present. Humorously titled Pistoletto’s (Rubbish/Waste/Bag), Turk’s tributes reflect the now as a bridge between past and future – as both consequence and prescience – transposing the gallery to a scene of hyper-consumerist apocalypse, where garbage becomes elevated to masterpiece in the hallowed white cube, and artworks and viewers luxuriantly bask in their own expenditure. Turk’s bin bag motif was originally created in the late 1990s as part of a series of work engaging with themes of homelessness. Transferred to Pistoletto’s visionary 1960s framework – heavy mirror and inky decal today seem a quaintly Luddite attempt at virtuality – Turk offers the overlooked and discarded, redundant and obsolete, as provocatively contemporary proposals. Presented as a single panel, Pistoletto’s Rubbish (2013), simulates the format of an altarpiece: a site of reverence, of stark confrontation, of our cultural values, fetishizations, desires, and excesses; of the world – featuring ourselves, via brand-Turk, as transients in the spectacle.

Rubbish

Consume

Waste

Silkscreen

In the early 1960s, Michelangelo Pistoletto made his first mirror paintings. They weren’t really mirrors, as they were done on large sheets of polished steel, and they weren’t really paintings, because the ‘floating’ figures they depicted were photographs printed on tissue (and later silk screens) applied to the metal surfaces. What they were – and still are – was platforms which spectacularly embodied the world (and all its artifice) through their reflection.

A print of the artist as Elvis in black on mirror with chemical dissolve effect

Dorian Grey

Silkscreen and mirrored ink on glass

Warhol

Self-Portrait

Elvis

Masks

Flaneur

Your Authorised Reflection

Glass, mirror ink & pen in aluminium frame

Signatures

Celebrity

Blue Elvis

Icons

Faces

Turkey Foil Box

Silkscreen ink on Plywood

Packaging

Food

Installation info: The maze can be installed inside or outside on a suitably flat foundation. The bottom edge of the panels should be fixed to the ground if installed in a public space.A maze made from two way mirrored glass.

The Golden Thread

Aluminium Frame, laminated Glass and mirror film

Aluminium Frame, laminated glass and mirror film

Ariadne

Labyrinths

Installation

Installation info: The maze can be installed inside or outside on a suitably flat foundation. The bottom edge of the panels should be fixed to the ground if installed in a public space.A maze made from two way mirrored glass.

A surveillance mirror signed in permanent marker, named after Richard Hamilto’s slip it to me.

‘The Arnolfini Portrait’, painted by the Dutch master Jan van Eyck (and often thought to depict a wedding), is famous for featuring a convex mirror in which van Eyck himself can be seen. Above the mirror the artist has written ‘Jan van Eyck was here 1434’. Many think the artist was employed as a witness to a marriage, with his newly invented oil-painting technique being used to create legal documentation, like photographs are today. Meanwhile, ‘Epiphany’ is also a title of the British Pop artist Richard Hamilton’s circular, 1964 painting that bears the text ‘SLIP IT TO ME’; a phrase that suggests illegal activities when related to a surveillance mirror. Because Turk’s piece reflects the whole room, it has the effect of adding his signature to everything around it, laying claim to all work on display with the pseudo-legal authority of van Eyck’s signature.

Epiphany

Marker pen on surveillance mirror

A surveillance mirror signed in permanent marker, named after Richard Hamilto’s slip it to me.‘The Arnolfini Portrait’, painted by the Dutch master Jan van Eyck (and often thought to depict a wedding), is famous for featuring a convex mirror in which van Eyck himself can be seen. Above the mirror the artist has written ‘Jan van Eyck was here 1434’. Many think the artist was employed as a witness to a marriage, with his newly invented oil-painting technique being used to create legal documentation, like photographs are today. Meanwhile, ‘Epiphany’ is also a title of the British Pop artist Richard Hamilton’s circular, 1964 painting that bears the text ‘SLIP IT TO ME’; a phrase that suggests illegal activities when related to a surveillance mirror. Because Turk’s piece reflects the whole room, it has the effect of adding his signature to everything around it, laying claim to all work on display with the pseudo-legal authority of van Eyck’s signature.

Object Trouvé

A surveillance mirror signed in permanent marker, named after Richard Hamilto’s slip it to me.

Installation info: Each cube consists of 6 panels (no bottom) and 8 brackets. &nbsp;NB: &nbsp;Brackets are in bottom of crate One embedded in the foam. &nbsp;

All edges of the cubes are very vulnerable so great care should be taken when handling and assembly should be done where the work is to be place as once put together it will not be possible to move.

The 4 mirror sides have an extended section of chipboard on the bottom edge so gather these together first and arrange so they are placed in a running butt sequence (see snap attached of a birds-eye drawing to illustrate this). &nbsp; &nbsp;Then use 8 brackets. &nbsp;4 on inside of bottom and 4 on inside of top - If you need help in placing these the holes should be visible from previous installations to guide you. &nbsp;It is crucial to ensure all right angles are square and flush whilst doing this.

Once the four sides are all screwed together, the top panel needs placing. &nbsp;This consists of two parts. &nbsp;Place the chip board panel with finger hole first, this rests on other chipboard of the side panels, and then finally place glass top panel flush. &nbsp;(This can be done without use of suckers.) &nbsp;

*16 mm size 4 screws if none included

(September 2016)

Four aged and tarnished mirror-plated cubes

Robert Morris Untitled 1965-72

Distressed mirror plate glass and wood in four parts

Four aged and tarnished mirror-plated cubes

Authorship

Infinity

Installation info: Each cube consists of 6 panels (no bottom) and 8 brackets.  NB:  Brackets are in bottom of crate One embedded in the foam.   All edges of the cubes are very vulnerable so great care should be taken when handling and assembly should be done where the work is to be place as once put together it will not be possible to move.

Installation info: MIRROR INSTALLATION & DEINSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONSPlacing the floor:Take the panels out of the crates and differentiate the position that each one should take in relation to the whole sculpture.  The panels have their positions written on them on the inside center in pencil.  Position the floor base and decide on its orientation. The base needs to be level so if the floor is on a slight slope or on uneven ground use small shims or wedges to keep it as flat and level as possible.Bolt on the twelve floor plates in their corresponding positions, check that the letters correspond with one another and arrange so the letters are always facing up. Make sure sufficient pressure is applied when bolting the panels down so they are firm and secure.Take the floor panel and slide it over the grid of floor plates so it rests on the floor base. Push down evenly to make sure it’s firmly in place. Test the floor panel is securely slotted into place by walking on the base and checking its firm under foot and there is no movement.Joining the panels:Select a perspex strip and place it into the rebate of one of the short sides of the floor panel. Lift the corresponding side panel onto the perspex strip so that the two panels sit at right angles. Make sure the perspex is evenly spaced within the rebate and that the panels are evenly slotted together with an equal gap visible between them. Make sure that someone continues to hold the side panel securely in place. Put the next Perspex strip into the rebate of the floor panel, this will join onto the back panel. Lift the back panel on the perspex as was done with the previous panel when the two panels are both securely held in position and evenly spaced. Slightly tip the two panels back by a few degrees so there is enough room to slot the vertical perspex strip between the two to form the corner. Fit this into place whilst simultaneously lifting the panels back into their vertical position. You should now have the first corner fixed in place. Note that where the three strips of perspex meet there should be an equal triangular space. If the horizontal strips seem to slip down then make small paper shims/wedges to place in the rebate to keep the horizontal Perspex strip in position and the triangular gap even in size.Continue the same technique until all four walls are in place.Placing the roof:Strap or hold the four sides of the sculpture together. Pass the roof section up and onto the top of the walls so that it sits long-ways over-hanging the edges. Make sure there are plenty of people to help (ideally four or more), as this needs to be done very gently so as not to scratch any of the panels.Go inside the sculpture and with a minimum of four persons lift the roof section up and turn it into its desired position so that it’s floating above the walls.  Place the Perspex strips into the rebates on top of the walls. Designate one edge of the roof and lower this to slot onto the corresponding perspex strip. Next ease in the two sides working evenly along both at the same time so the roof evenly slots down into place.  Finally fit the last edge onto the Perspex. The roof should slot in evenly with the same size gaps and triangular spacing as the wall sections.Finish:When the sculpture is assembled make any last alteration by either moving, wiggling or pushing panels. Check that all the gaps between panels are evenly spaced and all the corner triangles are even in appearance. Touch-up, fill, sand and/or repaint any scuffs and/or paint work.Take down:Exactly as above but in reverse, Make sure when taking down panels that the perspex strips are removed early as they are likely to get caught between rebates and can easily drop out and potentially scratch etc.A cubic room with transparent edges and a door on one side. White on the outside, but dark inside, with the only light coming in through the perspex edges.

Mirror

Wood and perspex

A cubic room with transparent edges and a door on one side. White on the outside, but dark inside, with the only light coming in through the perspex edges.

Identity

Illusion

Installation info: MIRROR INSTALLATION & DEINSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS Placing the floor: Take the panels out of the crates and differentiate the position that each one should take in relation to the whole sculpture. The panels have their positions written on them on the inside center in pencil. Position the floor base and decide on its orientation.