20/04/15
Gavin Turk:
Project Beard
The Other Art Fair, Victoria House
23-26 April
2015
Gavin Turk
came to fame in Britain in the 1990s, in the era of the Young British Artists
and Charles Saatchi, who included him in the 1997 group show, Sensation. Having
first studied at Chelsea School of Art (1986-1989), Turk went on to the Royal
College of Art, but was refused his final degree in 1991 on the grounds that
his final piece, Cave, a blue heritage plaque commemorating his presence as a
sculptor, placed in a whitewashed studio space, was insufficient.
This
underlying theme of questioning the identity and role of the artist and author
has remained throughout the ensuing two decades of Turk’s career, not least in
his first major monograph published last year, This Is Not A Book About Gavin
Turk, which lets 30 notable contributors explore themes associated with his
work.
As a
special commission for the April 2015 London edition of The Other Art Fair,
headed by Ryan Stanier, Turk has decided to cut off his rather bushy beard in
stages, being photographed in the guise of six famous artists – from Auguste Rodin to Salvador Dalí –
along the way. This is not too great a departure from previous works by the
artist, which have seen him styled as icons of 20th-century culture, including
Andy Warhol, Sid Vicious and Che Guevara.
The signed
editions and posters produced as part of Project Beard, as it has become known,
will be sold at the fair to raise money for the educational
children’s art charity, The House of Fairy Tales, set up by Turk
and his wife in 2007.
To watch this interview, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/gavin-turk-project-beard-exclusive-video-interview-the-other-art-fair