This exhibition introduces the murdeme collection to the public for the first time.

In the darkest hour there may be light: Works from Damien Hirst’s murderme collecton

This exhibition introduces the murdeme collection to the public for the first time.

“I shall show you fear in a handful of dust” – T.S. Elliot 

Waste Not Want Not at Galleri Veggerby was a solo show of Gavin Turk’s exploring themes of waste and value.

Turk’s interest in re-assessing everyday banalities has the haiku-like quality of unveiling what appears to be uneventfully familiar for audiences. The objects the artist had chosen to replicate with his painted bronze trompe l’oeils invite observers to re-consider the objects’ usefulness and their value once that use has been served. The use of semi-precious metal to depict a card board box, an apple core or a disposable chip fork playfully subverts the value associated with the objects we think we see. 

Litter and Bronze have the streets in common; traditionally bronze is found in our towns and cities cast into the poses of war and myth to celebrate and condition. These public monuments depict the failures of social and political systems, a symbolism which Turk’s sculptures replicate by criticising the behavioural ambivalence of littering and the commercial over-use of natural resources. 

The uncanny appearance of Turk’s deceptive forms prompted audiences to revaluate their sense of reality and value systems, whether in relation to art history – perceptions of beauty, the still life and social-realism – or our shared social consciousness.

Waste Not Want Not

“I shall show you fear in a handful of dust” – T.S. Elliot Waste Not Want Not at Galleri Veggerby was a solo show of Gavin Turk’s exploring themes of waste and value.

For his first collaboration with The Fine Art Society Gavin Turk realised the project he first began in 1993. Turk presented a series of totemic porcelain fonts, he engaged in a visual game with iconic art of the 20th century and its relationship to the museum.

By making overt references to Duchamp’s Fountain, Turk was playfully plagiaristic, whilst deconstructing art’s mythologies. Selecting the major national art institutions throughout the world, he had addressed a piece to each of them. An endgame of 20th century sculpture and commerce, the contemporary classic encapsulatef the history of sculpture in one ‘pure’ form.

The Font Project

For his first collaboration with The Fine Art Society Gavin Turk realised the project he first began in 1993. Turk presented a series of totemic porcelain fonts, he engaged in a visual game with iconic art of the 20th century and its relationship to the museum.

Last Year in Eggenberg was an exhibition of works by Gavin Turk at Schloss Eggenberg which included the life-size automaton, Gentleman Jim, and performances of Waiting for Gavo.

Gentleman Jim took his place as another “Hall of Fame” figure in Turk’s artistic oeuvre joining icons such as Che Guevara, Sid Vicious, Elvis Presley and Joseph Beuys. Turk’s life-sized, grotesque self-portraits presented to audiences as metaphors for the absurdity of reality and one’s own existence. 

The same absurdity was reflected in, Waiting for Gavo, a puppet show adapted from Samuel Beckett’s celebrated Waiting for Godot by Turk. The hand-made puppets are no less than additional Gavin Turk self-portraits, incorporating figures from art history such as Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol.

The show presented a twisted vision of paradise complemented by “lost” and forgotten objects: a crushed polystyrene cup with the dregs of tea; a used match, discarded and worthless. Turk brought these objects back to life and on them confers immortality. Equivocal symbols of civilisation sublimated and refined by Turk, cast in bronze, before being presented back to the audience stripped of deprived of their material value by their outwards appearance of discarded waste.

Last Year in Eggenberg (The Paradise Show)

Last Year in Eggenberg was an exhibition of works by Gavin Turk at Schloss Eggenberg which included the life-size automaton, Gentleman Jim, and performances of Waiting for Gavo.

In the darkest hour there may be light: Works from Damien Hirst’s murderme collecton

Waste Not Want Not

The Font Project

Last Year in Eggenberg (The Paradise Show)

In Between