Tonight the winner of this year’s Turner Prize will be announced live on Channel 4, and the exhibition of all four finalists’ work will stay open at Tate Britain until the start of next year.
This is the 30th anniversary of the controversial contemporary art prize – once described by our then culture minister Kim Howells as ‘cold, mechanical, conceptual bullshit’ – which is awarded every year to ‘a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition… of their work in the 12 months preceding’.
Notorious past winners have included Damien Hirst in 1995, for showing a cow and a calf cut in half and floating in formaldehyde; Chris Ofili in 1998, for his paintings decorated with cow dung; and Martin Creed in 2001, for an empty room with the lights turning on and off.
Nowadays though the prize is more likely to confuse the tabloids than annoy them, and also for the past two years it’s been awarded to fantastic female artists: Elizabeth Price in 2012 and Laure Prouvost in 2013.
So here’s what to say – and what not to say – about this year’s four nominees.
Ciara Phillips
One of the most entertaining things about the Turner Prize exhibition is the comments board at the end, where everyone is encouraged to pin their thoughts to the wall; and this year it certainly hasn’t been kind to Ciara Phillips, the only woman on the shortlist and the only one not working in moving image.
‘Ciara Phillips’s works are nothing but decoration,’ begins one disgruntled visitor, ‘you should serve coffee in her space.’
Actually, Ciara is a printmaker and she has papered a whole room of the Tate with colourful floor-to-ceiling abstracts, as well as positive slogans such as ‘OK’ and ‘ON’.
What to say:
‘It’s so nice to see something other than video work, and I love the way she invites other people to come and make prints with her.’
What not to say:
‘I much prefer the Christmas decorations in my local Starbucks.’
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Duncan Campbell
Duncan Campbell is an Irish filmmaker who mostly works in 16mm film and – there’s no way around this – it’s near impossible to explain his works without sounding somewhat pretentious. Duncan’s showing two films in the exhibition.
The first is called Sigmar, an experimental exploration of the paintings of recently deceased German painter Sigmar Polke – currently on show at Tate Modern – and it’s just very weird. Think stop-motion animation and strange voices saying ‘Dog!’ (I think?) over and over again. Whatever.
The second is called It For Others, is almost an hour long, and – according to the accompanying text – ‘reflects on how exchange and consumption affect the value of an object through a series of chapters: from a spoken monologue using extracts from Russian director Sergei Eisenstein’s notes on film to a silent choreography performed by Michael Clark Company based on equations laid out in Karl Marx’s Capital Volume 1.’
It sounds awful but it’s actually really, really excellent and enjoyable, which is why Duncan Campbell’s odds-on favourite to win the Turner Prize at 2/1.
What to say:
‘I totally understand what Duncan Campbell is talking about in his films, don’t you?’
What not to say:
‘Dog!’
James Richards
As the youngest and most sexual artist on the shortlist, 31-year-old James Richards is the winner of choice for much of the trendy London art world, and his installation at the Tate is highly seductive.
Upon walking into the show I was immediately confronted by a massive flat-screen TV showing a still of a leather-gartered punk with a whip coming out of his arse. At least, that’s what I think was happening, but it’s hard to tell because the part of the photograph showing his arsehole has been scratched out. (At first I thought he was treating himself to an enema with a hosepipe.)
This is just one moment in James’s video Rosebud, which wordlessly explores a series of censored books in a Tokyo library, interspersed with other erotic footage such as a wild flower caressing vaginas and penises and arseholes. There’s something for everyone in this film!
What to say:
‘It’s like the most wonderful, elegant pornography ever made.’
What not to say:
‘Turner would be turning in his grave!’
Tris Vonna-Michell
Tris Vonna-Michell is an artist-storyteller from Southend in Essex, and although he’s unpopular with the bookies, he’s my most loved artist in the show.
In his performances Tris spins strange tales of his upbringing, such as a search for quail’s eggs, while keeping track of how long he’s been talking with an egg timer. In his installation at the Tate, recordings of these performances are played alongside his slide shows, and there are also light-boxes displaying his photographs, including one absolutely amazing image of a Cadbury’s Cream Egg.
What to say:
‘His stories really make me think of travelling through time and space.’
What not to say:
‘This is just a really shit version of TOWIE.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.