Tuesday: The Turner Prize

After meeting up with a friend in town, I decided to go and see the Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Britain. I took the Thames ferry which runs between Tate Modern and the old gallery and got quite a good river side view of the city (I took some photographs) . I recommend it.

The Turner Prize is to promote contemporary art and the four artists this year are:

• Dexter Dalwood
• The Otolith Group
• Angela de la Cruz
• Susan Philipsz

Dexter Dalwood

On entering the exhibition space, the first artist's work on display is Dexter Dalwood. Dexter paints canvases, which must be a refreshing change for the Turner Prize. It seems that part of appreciating the work of the artist is to know what the title of the work is and to have some knowledge of the subject matter. For example, this is quite a moody piece, a tree on a moonlight night:



But the title of the piece is "The Death of David Kelly", which puts a slightly different slant on the whole thing, Kelly's body being found in a wood, the controversy surrounding his death, etc.

The Otolith Group

This was lots of TV screens arranged around the room showing a documentary, with a larger screen showing another documentary. I think this is what is called "phoning it in".

Angela de la Cruz

Get a pile of builders rubble. Put a tarpaulin over it and cover the tarpaulin with thick paint. Then enter it into the Turner Prize. I kid you not:



One of the funnier things about this is that with a work of art, the media is listed, e.g. Oil on Canvas, Silverpoint on Coloured Paper, etc. One of the submissions was "Untitled (Hold No 1), Oil on Aluminium Box and Metal Filing Cabinet". Now that's what I call mixed media.

Susan Philipsz

The problem with this work is that it relies heavily on the location. When you walk into the room, it's empty apart from four speakers playing the artist singing an old Scottish folk song. Reading the catalogue, the music is meant to be played under some bridge in Glasgow. This seems like an original idea until you realise it's also the idea behind lift music and the songs they play in supermarkets.

Conclusion

To say which one will win the prize, I'd have to go with Dexter Dalwood, with Susan Philipsz as a close second. The other two didn't seem to be putting the effort in. However, even these two seemed to be lacking something. What I was hoping for was something which engaged the viewer on some level, like when you walk into the room, a motion detector tracked you and produced a sound depending on where you were and how fast you were moving. There's an interactive art piece in the Science Museum which does something like that and there used to be one in the Meadows shopping centre in Chelmsford. This is 21st century art.

I think the last words on the subject should go to Calvin and Hobbes:

Calvin: Art isn't about ideas. It's about style. The most crucial career decision is picking a good "ism" so everyone knows how to categorize you without understanding the work.

Hobbes: You do goofy drawings on the sidewalk.

Calvin: Right. I'm a suburban post-modernist.

Hobbes: Aren't we all.

Calvin: I was going to be a neo-deconstructivist but Mom wouldn't let me.