iblog

The race for the ever mildly controversial Turner Prize 2007 has begun in earnest, check out the four shortlisted artists. I was lucky enough to attend the exhibition last year and found it ranging from the sublime to the trashy. The two most memorable pieces were by Phil Collins whose work examined the effect of reality on the lives of those who appear in it, from around the world and the eventual winner Tomma Abts whose intricate, complex abstract paintings had real presence - tiny, intimate, stunning against the huge white walls. One could look at Tomma’s work for several hours if you wished, but Mark Tichner’s piece was both teenage, superfical and instantly forgettable; ten minutes on Photoshop. Worse still were Rebecca Warrens sculptures which were underworked and dull. The small plexi-glass boxes that lined her room were an actually witty commentary on the whole Turner institution, as people peered into the boxes trying to make sense of essentially an art gag, a collection of rubbish.

This year? Mark Wallinger’s political work seems perfectly timed to eulogise the end of Tony Blair as prime minister and the worrying continuation of his legacy on the streets of Iraq. Nathan Coley’s photography and sculpture ranges from the intriguing (his piece There Will Be No Miracles Here is provocative). Mike Nelson seems to be the artist that will generate the most controversy, in that his installation piece Mirror Infill is a re-creation of a filthy darkroom, and to the uninformed little else. Zarina Bhimji’s photographs are richly melanchol, tranquil and moving. My money is on Wallinger, for his politics, or her for her work’s pure beauty.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 9:58 pm and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.