Pop Up features the artist Gavin Turk as Sid Vicious in the pose of Andy Warhol's Elvis Presley. A tribute to both the original king of Pop and the celebrated Pop artist, the work shows Turk adopting the same rebel snarl, not as the King of Pop but the dark Prince of punk. While Elvis was a sanitised icon of the music industry given a rebellious makeover by Warhol, Sid was a natural outsider who found himself somewhat accidentally at the heart of pop culture. Turk’s work deals with issues of authenticity and identity, in particular the the 'myth' of the artist and the 'authorship' of a work of art.
GAVIN TURK (British, 1967)
photograph on aluminium
182 x 40 cm
Acquired in 2001
