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The Sebastian Guninness Gallery is proud to
present, in association with RS&A Ltd (London)
the world premiere of British Artist, Gavin Turk’s
film piece, The Mechanical Turk.
The Mechanical Turk was an almost mythical
automaton constructed in the late 18th
century by the Austrian inventor Wolfgang
von Kempelen that astounded audiences across
Europe and America. In the early 19th century it
was said to have outwitted Napoleon Bonaparte
and baffled some of the greatest chess minds
of all time including the French grandmaster
Francois-André Philidor. The Turk also inspired
the literary genius of Edgar Allen Poe who
correctly surmised that the machine was in
fact operated by a human being hidden within
its mechanical interior.
Gavin Turk’s Mechanical Turk, witnesses the
artist, who in the past has produced work
featuring himself in the guise of Che Guevara
and Sid Vicious, taking on the image of the
original automaton and executing the Knight’s
Tour in a suitably mechanical fashion. His
homage to the Mechanical Turk is joined
by ten other specially designed chess sets
commissioned over the past five years by RS&A
Ltd in London, bringing together for the first
time in Ireland Brit-art heavyweights Jake &
Dinos Chapman and Damien Hirst; 1993 Turner
Prizewinner Rachel Whiteread; Whitney Biennal
exhibitior, Maurizio Cattelan from Italy; Americans Barbara Kruger, (whose instantly
recognisable political/philosophical art
interventions have been seen all over the world),
Paul McCarthy, Matthew Ronay and Tom
Friedman; MOMA New York exhibitor and winner
of the prestigious Ordre des arts et des Lettres:
Yayoi Kusama from Japan; and Brazilian artist,
Tunga, a two-time Venice Biennale exhibitor.
The Sebastian Guinness Gallery, located in
Temple Bar since January 2008, is dedicated to
bringing international art and artists to Ireland.
This will be an exciting exhibition with which to
start the Autumn and is bound to capture the
attention of art-lovers, collectors, and the just
plain curious.
Sebastian Guinness will be delighted to arrange
interviews with any of the artists for the press
and for television, but particularly with Jake &
Dinos Chapman and Gavin Turk, who will attend
the opening.
Please
contact the gallery for images, interviews and
any further information. We will be delighted
to help in any way.
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