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Probably the most important photography exhibition london has ever seen
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Description: The artist replaces Andy Warhol's features with his own in a reworking of his 'Fright-Wig' paintings.
Phone: 0207439 0000
Website: www.riflemaker.org
Email: info@riflemaker.org
Trains: Tube: Oxford Circus 
Gavin Turk dons a 'fright wig' against a swirly camouflage pattern as he takes on the pose of his hero Andy Warhol
Gavin Turk is famous for his disguises. He made a mannequin of himself in the guise of Sid Vicious standing in the gun-slinging pose of Warhol's iconic image of Elvis. He's also been Che Guevara and Marat, revolutionaries whose images have defined them in the public imagination.
In all these 'portraits', it's the persona rather than the personality that Turk wants to capture. Rather than seeking to get beneath the veneer, it's the notion of celebrity itself that appeals.
This might subvert the idea of portraiture, which traditionally aims to get under the skin of the subject - but it's all now become too much of Turk's shtick to be more than momentarily amusing.
Not surprisingly, Turk now 'does' Warhol. He's donned a 'fright wig' and, against a swirly camouflage pattern, his silk-screened image takes on the pose of his hero in his last series of self-portraits.
Warhol, of course, was all about exploiting image, rather than getting beneath a veneer. It was the glamorous façade that fascinated him, not the fragile egos beneath.
Turk has certainly got the dead-eyed look down to perfection, but by simply concentrating on surface what Turk fails, somewhat ironically, to capture is exactly the fragility beneath the cracked veneer that is so evident in Warhol's last images of himself.
Until Sep 8, Riflemaker, 79 Beak Street W1, Mon to Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat 11am to 6pm, free.
Tel: 020 7439 0000
Tube: Oxford Circus/Piccadilly Circus
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
