Wednesday, 31 January 2001
The artist Gavin Turk, 33, famously failed his MA course at the Royal College of Art when he displayed a blue English Heritage plaque with his name on it for his degree show. He is best known for his full-size sculpture Pop - a waxwork of himself as Sid Vicious - which was bought by Charles Saatchi and shown as part of the epoch-making Sensation exhibition. Turk is a leading member of the YBAs, or Young British Artists, a group that includes Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. He has had a number of solo exhibitions at the White Cube gallery in London and has just completed a project on Che Guevara, as part of Year of the Artist, in which he advertised for "revolutionaries" to take part. His work is showing at the Century City exhibition, which opens tomorrow at Tate Modern. Gavin Turk lives in east London with his partner and three children.
The artist Gavin Turk, 33, famously failed his MA course at the Royal College of Art when he displayed a blue English Heritage plaque with his name on it for his degree show. He is best known for his full-size sculpture Pop - a waxwork of himself as Sid Vicious - which was bought by Charles Saatchi and shown as part of the epoch-making Sensation exhibition. Turk is a leading member of the YBAs, or Young British Artists, a group that includes Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. He has had a number of solo exhibitions at the White Cube gallery in London and has just completed a project on Che Guevara, as part of Year of the Artist, in which he advertised for "revolutionaries" to take part. His work is showing at the Century City exhibition, which opens tomorrow at Tate Modern. Gavin Turk lives in east London with his partner and three children.
Which member of the "Britpack" artists would be best to go drinking with, and why? Lisa Waldron, Gloucester
All of them, all together, all at the same party. It would be sweet, smoochy, stupid and probably very nostalgic. I've just had a third child so socialising these days has to come to me. Things have moved on and we've all grown up a bit.
Do you think you'll be an artist for the rest of your life? How difficult is it to sustain such a persona, and do you fear the day you run out of ideas? Terry Maybury, London
I look forward to the day I run out of ideas because that will be the day that I'll feel gratified and resolved. That will be the moment when I have succeeded.
Your work often concerns itself with rather corny icons of the 20th century - Sid Vicious, Che Guevara, Elvis Presley etc. Are you an adolescent fantasist? Nick Codeman, Surrey
I think "corny" is the wrong word; "clichéd" would be more appropriate. I am a reporter on cultural fantasy and I think that clichés harbour some sort of truth. The reason why a cliché comes about is because there's an agreement between a great many people that such and such a thing is good. It may be good for varying reasons but that decision has still been made.
I heard that you were dead. How did this happen and when? K Leslie, Oxford
That sounds like a vicious rumour.
What do you dream about? Have you ever dreamt up an art work? Lisa Saunders, by e-mail
Like everyone else, I dream about unthinkable things. Your dreams are the time you get when you can join things together and not have to follow any kind of conscious stream of thought. Sometimes I dream about my work and quite often I have dreamt up whole exhibitions or various pieces of work, none of which I've actually gone on to make.
Without Charles Saatchi, you and the YBAs would be nothing. True or false? Sussanah Warren, Brighton
I don't know. Yes. To date, he's my biggest collector.
You recently produced a bin liner made out of bronze. Why? T Robinson, by e-mail
It's a similar thing to when you have a baby - the smaller the baby, the bigger the bag of stuff you have to carry around with you. When humans create matter they also create anti-matter - and so a bin liner becomes the symbol of everything humans need to discard. There's also the thing of people having their litter bags rifled through in order to find out about their life. What people throw away says a lot about their life.
Of whom would you like to do a nude study? Nicholas E Gough, Swindon
I'm not in the business of studying nudes for art.
What reaction did you get to your work on Che Guevara - and why him? Colin Lobley, Hertfordshire
I got a very varied reaction, but it was all surprisingly positive. I published my phone number in various newspapers asking people to participate and didn't receive one negative call. It was a great opportunity to be able to think about a whole variety of things - from simple corporate logos to international politics - and whether those things are actually any different. I was trying to say that some images have a political content that can be missed. Che Guevara - and especially the Alberto Korda image of him - is a catalyst, or a reason, for looking at and thinking about Third World politics, revolution and, by inference, our own political or cultural position.
Your Blue Plaque famously failed you your Royal College MA. Have you seen your tutors since then? If so, what do you have to say to them? Kate Mair, London
I recently met up with Christopher Frayling, who's now Rector of the Royal College, and he asked me whether I still had any of the souvenir plaques because he really wanted to buy one to put up in the senior common room. I just said I didn't have any left.
Was Sensation really the defining moment in the history of contemporary art that people tend to make out? Thomas May, Liverpool
Sensation was basically an exhibition of Charles Saatchi's collection, showing the work of young artists taking place in the historically traditional confines of the Royal Academy. It was simply a meeting of the old and the new, but the whole thing became a media circus because of Marcus Harvey's Myra Hindley painting. I don't think it was necessarily a turning point, though; a lot of things had already happened and the groundwork was already laid.
Who are your favourite and least favourite artists and why? Colin Favers, by e-mail
That's a hard one. When I started at art college I thought having favourites would help me to identify what was good and bad art, but as I continued to learn more I realised that it's not that. Now I have no more facility to judge good or bad art but I do have a more sophisticated understanding of the language of art.
Is it true that you had a waxwork on show in the Dome? Wasn't that a bit naff? Clare Baldini, London
I was commissioned to make a sculpture for the Mind Zone. It was based on a Magritte painting and was called Smokey Joe. It was a self portrait, with pipes sticking out of the face heated in such a way that through a smoke-filled cabinet it could be detected by an infrared camera. I went to the Dome just before it closed down with my kids, and I think we all enjoyed it for many different reasons. In the end, it had such bad press that it was always going to be very problematic.
What do your children think of your work and what would you say if your children said they wanted to be artists too? K Myerson, Stockport
They like it, or at least they say they like it, but I don't think they put it into the same category as other artworks. They've grown up with a lot of art around them and they like art generally, but they see that as different to the stuff I do. They have a slightly dislocated relationship with it. If they said they wanted to be artists, I'd just say "Are you sure?" I would encourage them to follow their interests, but I wouldn't want them to feel under any obligation to do it just because I do.
Is Hoxton really as fashionable as they say? Pete Hayward, by e-mail
Yes, it is still trendy, it really is. It's flash. It is fashion.
What can be learned from contemporary art forms such as unmade beds, faecal paintings, and halved animals? Nicholas E Gough, Swindon
I'm not sure whether the lessons learnt from these three things are the same. The works are too different. Tracey Emin's work is about her ability to share her emotions through visual and written language. Chris Offili's paintings are about ethnicity. And Damien Hirst's work is about isolated cultural elements and modern problems.
Where do you get your waxworks made? E Baton, Cardiff
They get made in my studio, and over the years I've had various different people assisting me. It's a very technical job, but it's very important to me to feel that I have made them myself. It's not a particularly creative job. What's interesting for me is the phenomenon of waxworks and sculpture and the cultural position it occupies historically. It's not fine art - it's popular art, which is why Madame Tussauds is London's most popular tourist attraction.
If I wanted to spot a hot new artist, who could make me a few quid, where should I be looking and can you recommend any one artist in particular? C Jacklin, London
Cedar Lewishon; he's my assistant. He's a good writer and a DJ.
Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis opens tomorrow at Tate Modern, London SE1 (020-7887 8000)
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