Transit Mirror

Cracked Transit Mirror

Mirrors

Transit

Vehicles

Black holes burning through our retinas like staring at the sun, the charcoal-like mark of the exhaust in a feat of comical automatic drawing. The fart of the car, like a contemporary cave drawing, encapsulating the ironies of our age: waste made exquisite – T. S. Eliot would have approved. The central altarpiece in this room absorbing the power of the human to give and to take away.

Emission Edition

Exhaust emissions on canvas

Exhaust

Smoke

The End

Stain

Painting

Black holes burning through our retinas like staring at the sun, the charcoal-like mark of the exhaust in a feat of comical automatic drawing. The fart of the car, like a contemporary cave drawing, encapsulating the ironies of our age: waste made exquisite – T. S. Eliot would have approved. The central altarpiece in this room absorbing the power of the human to give and to take away.

The idea for this artwork was to completely wrap a car in canvas and allow it to become a painting by exposing it to the elements. Over the course of its journeys, the car would become marked with dust particles, exhaust fumes, mud, and other accidental or weather-induced stains.

The car was unveiled as part of the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair in June, where Gavin also sold a unique edition of 50 pieces called Emission Edition. The pieces were created by holding a canvas against an exhaust pipe and then accelerating, the soot from the exhaust leaving a unique mark on each canvas.

Mummy

Car and canvas

The idea for this artwork was to completely wrap a car in canvas and allow it to become a painting by exposing it to the elements. Over the course of its journeys, the car would become marked with dust particles, exhaust fumes, mud, and other accidental or weather-induced stains. The car was unveiled as part of the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair in June, where Gavin also sold a unique edition of 50 pieces called Emission Edition. The pieces were created by holding a canvas against an exhaust pipe and then accelerating, the soot from the exhaust leaving a unique mark on each canvas.

Wrapped

Sculpture

The idea for this artwork was to completely wrap a car in canvas and allow it to become a painting by exposing it to the elements. Over the course of its journeys, the car would become marked with dust particles, exhaust fumes, mud, and other accidental or weather-induced stains.

The table is made of steel. The top is finished with clear original ‘Briwax’ (for lustre) and the table legs are finished with linseed oil (to protect against discolouration). Being steel, the table will be vulnerable to rust if exposed to moisture, so should be stored off the floor in a dry place. The table can be buffed to a shine without re-waxing: use separate cloths for the legs and the tabletop. The exhaust is made of blown glass. This is a more delicate material than domestic glass and should be treated with great care. The surface is very vulnerable to scratching and all abrasive contact should be avoided. When cleaning, use only water and very mild products such as vinegar, baking soda or glass cleaner suitable for lead crystal. Take care to use only cloths, which will leave no lint behind, especially when cleaning the inside. ‘Wypall’ cloths or e-cloths are very good for this purpose.When handling and moving the glass exhaust, great care should be taken to support each piece at its most vulnerable points. Each piece should be supported under the main chamber (the heaviest part) with the other parts being cradled to prevent any stress at the different junctions. Take care to keep the glass away from zips and buttons on your clothes as you are carrying. The glass exhaust and tabletop will both be marked if the two are scuffed together, so when installing the glass work on the table, lift into place rather than dragging. Wear gloves to avoid fingerprints on either surface. Because the table surface is waxed, the glass exhaust will move and spin if it is knocked. Push the two glass parts together firmly to improve the stability of the piece.For Turk the exhaust pipe represents the transport of air and is a metaphor for both breathing and exhaustion. The 'pregnant snake-like object' also holds up an anthropological mirror to societies reliance on roads and transportation and the consumption of resources at the heart of this. This work relates to his current series of bronze exhaust pipes convincingly painted to resemble rusty iron that alludes to Duchamp's readymades whilst also referring to the pipe as a symbol of more innocent times, as Bertrand Russell and his fellow intellectuals puffed their way to enlightenment and the brave new world. In this particular manifestation, the pipe is created using the exhalation or exhaustion of breath to hand blow the glass into the desired shape.'

This Is Not A Pipe

Blown glass on steel table.

Automaton

Duchamp

Glass

The table is made of steel. The top is finished with clear original ‘Briwax’ (for lustre) and the table legs are finished with linseed oil (to protect against discolouration). Being steel, the table will be vulnerable to rust if exposed to moisture, so should be stored off the floor in a dry place. The table can be buffed to a shine without re-waxing: use separate cloths for the legs and the tabletop.

On the occasion of  the 55th Venice Biennale Turk created a site specific project for the Gervasuti Foundation.   The installation comprised of a work based on the artist’s ongoing Transit Disaster series. The title is a pun on ‘van’ and ‘vernacular‘, a metaphor implying the social connotations that the iconic white Ford van of the ‘90s represents in British society and a paradoxical play on the Venetian urban context, a city without roads.  Vanacular reconfigures a language of identity between that which is considered an accident of fate and that which is invested with intent, both in art and in life.Turk often recycles famous art historical imagery in order to make contemporary societal correlations. Vanacular revives the classic pop-art technique of silk-screen-on-canvas while referencing the works of its most celebrated exponents Andy Warhol and Robert Raushenberg with his 18 metre long Currents (1970). Inspired by Warhol’s famous Death And Disaster series (1962-3), which were derived from photographs of fatal car accidents taken from newspapers, Turk’s Vanacular comprises of a 27 metre long canvas with a selection of sourced images of crashed and/or burnt-out Ford Transit vans.  The expressive shapes of the distorted metal, every scratch as if charged with meaning, also allude to the underlying social tensions that led to the 2011 London riots which some of these images come from.  The repeated still images silk-screened in a ‘Warhol style’ range of colour combinations produce an animated effect as if to suggest a disaster movie. The orchestration of colours enhances this sense of motion which in turn effects a transformation or change from the stasis of the crashed vans into a new energy or lifeforce. The Transit Disaster series is not merely a pastiche of Warhol’s famous car crash paintings since Turk replaces the American car with an image of a white transit van, a symbol of a disappearing era of working class Britain. Vanacular also relates, albeit indirectly, to the term ‘Fordism’, the notion of a modern economic and social system based on an assembly line of mass production for a mass market. Turk’s Vanacular represents a visual manifestation of urban unrest, which through continuous clashes and disasters is heading towards a materialistic mutation.

Vanacular

Silikscreen on canvas

On the occasion of the 55th Venice Biennale Turk created a site specific project for the Gervasuti Foundation. The installation comprised of a work based on the artist’s ongoing Transit Disaster series. The title is a pun on ‘van’ and ‘vernacular‘, a metaphor implying the social connotations that the iconic white Ford van of the ‘90s represents in British society and a paradoxical play on the Venetian urban context, a city without roads. Vanacular reconfigures a language of identity between that which is considered an accident of fate and that which is invested with intent, both in art and in life.Turk often recycles famous art historical imagery in order to make contemporary societal correlations. Vanacular revives the classic pop-art technique of silk-screen-on-canvas while referencing the works of its most celebrated exponents Andy Warhol and Robert Raushenberg with his 18 metre long Currents (1970). Inspired by Warhol’s famous Death And Disaster series (1962-3), which were derived from photographs of fatal car accidents taken from newspapers, Turk’s Vanacular comprises of a 27 metre long canvas with a selection of sourced images of crashed and/or burnt-out Ford Transit vans. The expressive shapes of the distorted metal, every scratch as if charged with meaning, also allude to the underlying social tensions that led to the 2011 London riots which some of these images come from. The repeated still images silk-screened in a ‘Warhol style’ range of colour combinations produce an animated effect as if to suggest a disaster movie. The orchestration of colours enhances this sense of motion which in turn effects a transformation or change from the stasis of the crashed vans into a new energy or lifeforce. The Transit Disaster series is not merely a pastiche of Warhol’s famous car crash paintings since Turk replaces the American car with an image of a white transit van, a symbol of a disappearing era of working class Britain. Vanacular also relates, albeit indirectly, to the term ‘Fordism’, the notion of a modern economic and social system based on an assembly line of mass production for a mass market. Turk’s Vanacular represents a visual manifestation of urban unrest, which through continuous clashes and disasters is heading towards a materialistic mutation.

Warhol

Silkscreen

On the occasion of the 55th Venice Biennale Turk created a site specific project for the Gervasuti Foundation. The installation comprised of a work based on the artist’s ongoing Transit Disaster series. The title is a pun on ‘van’ and ‘vernacular‘, a metaphor implying the social connotations that the iconic white Ford van of the ‘90s represents in British society and a paradoxical play on the Venetian urban context, a city without roads.

Flat Tyre

Painted bronze

Painted Bronze

Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit Disaster Motorway Yellow

Silkscreen ink and metallic paint on canvas

Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish.

Transit Compression

Crushed Transit van

Transit Disaster Arcade Green

Installation info: To be displayed in custom made steel and glass vitrine as per photosBronze exhaust pipe painted to look real

Darmstadt

Installation info: To be displayed in custom made steel and glass vitrine as per photosBronze exhaust pipe painted to look real

Installation info: To be displayed in custom made steel and glass vitrine as per photos Bronze exhaust pipe painted to look real

Transit Disaster Burnt Out White

Installation info: Hang on wallAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit Disaster Dinosaurs Lilac

Installation info: Hang on wallAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Installation info: Hang on wall Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish.

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit van in black diamond on turquoise Appropriations of appropriations, Turk&rsquo;s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol&rsquo;s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist&rsquo;s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk&rsquo;s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol&rsquo;s &ldquo;originals&rdquo;, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Black Diamond Transit Disaster Green/Blue

Acrylic paint and diamond dust on canvas

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit van in black diamond on turquoise

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in pink on orange in multiple printAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit Disaster Pink on Orange

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in pink on orange in multiple printAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in pink on orange in multiple print Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers.

Transit vs Cobra Disaster Red

Negative Transit Disaster on Blue

Pale Green Transit Disaster

Silkscreen ink and diamond dust on paper

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on whiteAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit Disaster Black on White

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on whiteAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on white Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers.

Transit disaster image in double print on dark orange groundAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Double Transit Disaster Orange

Transit disaster image in double print on dark orange groundAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit disaster image in double print on dark orange ground Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers.

Transit disaster image with blue and black print on silverAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Electric Transit Disaster

Transit disaster image with blue and black print on silverAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit disaster image with blue and black print on silver Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers.

Transit Disaster Diptych

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on red in multiple print

Transit Disaster Red

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on red in multiple print

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on orange in multiple print

Transit Disaster Orange

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on orange in multiple print

A car tyre print on paper, as sold at the Art Car Boot Fair 2008.

Tyre print

Work on paper

A car tyre print on paper, as sold at the Art Car Boot Fair 2008.

GB car sticker replaced with the artists initials.

GT Car Sticker

Printed cut-out sticker

GB car sticker replaced with the artists initials.

A black Honda car boot with a &lsquo;GT&rsquo; sticker, signed and dated by the artist for the Art Car Boot Fair 2007. This artwork was first created as an elaborate ruse. In the summer of 2007 Turk was invited to take part in The Art Car Boot Fair in Brick Lane, East London - An annual jamboree where artists take over the marketplace selling their bizarre wares. In this twist on the English car boot fair phenomena (where people sell their unwanted goods from the back of cars), Turk decided to take the brief at face value and literally sell a motley collection of second-hand car boots selected and adorned with the artists signature flamboyantly embellished in permanent marker. A battered relic of the motor car, itself a symbol of income and social status hangs as an artifact separated from its function. A useless flap hanging on the wall like instant archaeology as an epoch struggles to come to terms with its out of control consumer appetite. The back end of a once noble steed becomes a Moose Head on the wall.

Car Boot (Black Honda)

Car boot & marker pen

Readymade

Ready Made

A black Honda car boot with a ‘GT’ sticker, signed and dated by the artist for the Art Car Boot Fair 2007.