SALISBURY.- We Are One brings together many of Gavin Turk’s recent neon works. Made between 1995 and 2013, these signature pieces evidence the evolution of his practice, quite literally, in lights; their glow, suitably enough for Turk, has the aura of consumer fetish, celebrity and glamour. Turk often co-opts and transforms original meaning and many of his neon works turn everyday objects into luminous symbols. Hence a banana and a lobster channel the spirit of Warhol and Duchamp, in order to create Turk’s own-brand logos. Visually reduced to minimal typographies, other works offer signs of communication in its simplest form: a seeing eye, a flickering flame, primordial hieroglyphs, with their ancient mysteries and secrets, evolved to modern day usage. A red star recalls Turk’s ‘Che Guevara’ series and a red Maltese cross alludes to Yves Klein’s interest in the Order of St John. Turk wore the Maltese cross when he married recently, in a ceremony that was a partial re-enactment of Klein’s own wedding. Moreover each point of the Maltese cross represents the eight lands of origin, the origin of languages, and the values of truth, sincerity and faith.

We Are One has been selected from Seven Billion Two Hundred and One Million Nine Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand and Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight, first shown at The Bowes Museum, County Durham earlier this year and which was curated by Greville Worthington. At the New Art Centre the neon works shown in the gallery will be joined by three additional bronze sculptures shown outside in the park at Roche Court.

Gavin Turk (b. 1967) has pioneered many forms of contemporary British sculpture now taken for granted, including the painted bronze, the waxwork, the recycled art-historical icon and the use of rubbish in art. His installations and sculptures deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned with the ‘myth’ of the artist and the ‘authorship’ of a work, Turk’s engagement with this modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready- mades of Marcel Duchamp. Gaining notoriety in 1991 when the Royal College of Art refused Turk a degree, Turk has since been exhibited by major galleries and museums throughout the world and he last exhibited at the New Art Centre in 2003. He has recently been commissioned to make several public sculptures including ‘Nail’ in the City of London. A monograph was published in 2013, assembled under Turk’s direction; with essays by Iain Sinclair and Judith Collins, it showcases more than two decades of his work. We Are One is the second occasion the New Art Centre has collaborated with The Bowes Museum.