7. Gavin Turk – Blue Plaque 1991
In 1991, tutors at the Royal College of Art refused to present Gavin Turk with his postgraduate degree. This decision was a reaction to the artist’s graduation exhibition. Titled ‘Cave’, the show consisted of a whitewashed studio space, containing a blue heritage plaque commemorating his own presence as a sculptor, stating “Gavin Turk worked here, 1989-1991”. This bestowed some instant notoriety on Turk, whose work was collected by numerous collectors including Charles Saatchi, who later exhibited the artist’s work in the exhibition ‘Sensation’ at the Royal Academy of Arts, Berlin (Hamburger Bahnhof) and New York (Brooklyn Museum). Turk attended the private view of the Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy, dressed as a homeless man.