Bad at Sports Episode 69: Gavin Turk - a podcast by Bad at Sports

Duncan and Richard interview art superstar Gavin Turk!!!



As set forth in Wikipedia:

Gavin Turk (born 1967) is a British artist and one of the
Young British Artists (YBAs). He often uses his own image in life-size
sculptures of famous people.

He was born in Guildford, near London, and went to the Royal College of Art.
However, in 1991, the tutors refused to give him the final degree because of
his show, called Cave, which consisted of a whitewashed studio space,
containing only a blue heritage plaque (of the kind normally found on historic
buildings) commemorating his own presence as a sculptor. This bestowed some
instant notoriety on Turk, whose work was collected by Charles Saatchi.

His work often involves his own image disguised as that
of a famous person. He has cast himself in a series of detailed life sized
sculptures as different romantic heroes, including Sid Vicious, Jean-Paul Marat
and Che Guevara. Pop, a waxwork model of Turk as Sid Vicious, in white jacket
and black trousers, pointing a handgun (appropriating the stance of Andy
Warhol's painting of Elvis Presley as a cowboy), was part of the 1997 Sensation
exhibition which toured London, Berlin and New
York. A set of what appeared to be classic posters of
Che Guevara in a beret, revealed themselves on further scrutiny to be photos of
Turk in the same pose.

Ambiguity features throughout his work. What appeared to
be a discarded plastic rubbish bag was in fact a bronze sculpture of one. A
large industrial skip (normally yellow, battered and with rust) was painted an
immaculate gloss black. He turned up at the private view of the Sensation
exhibition at the solemn Royal Academy, London,
dressed as a down-and-out.

 

 

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