The first ever Turner Prize exhibition to be staged outside of England opened to the public today (Wednesday 22 October). Staged at a former military barracks in Derry-Londonderry, the inaugural UK City of Culture, the show features work by this year’s four shortlisted artists: Laure Prouvost, Tino Sehgal, David Shrigley and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
The work on show is typically eclectic. London-based French artist Prouvost presents her multimedia installation, Wantee, which was recently seen as part of the Tate’s Kurt Schwitters retrospective (Wantee is the name of Schwitters’ girlfriend). The piece, which she was nominated for along with her two-part installation for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, takes the form of a video presented in a cluttered, dark room; the room is based on the house of the artist’s (fictional) grandfather, a frequent reference in her work.
Glasgow-based David Shrigley’s contribution is also installation-based. Again, it isn’t a new piece – although nominated for his major show last year at The Hayward Gallery, David Shrigley: Brain Activity, his Life Model installation was first seen in a later show at Cornerhouse in Manchester. Featuring a naked, oddly proportioned sculpture of a male life model peeing into a tin bucket, the walls of the gallery are covered with the public’s previous attempts to draw the figure. Visitors to the Turner Prize show are invited to pull up a seat and have a go themselves.
Nominated for This Variation at documenta XIII and These Associations at Tate Modern, Tino Sehgal presents This is Exchange, originally presented a decade ago but adapted here for its new context. In an unadorned white space, local actors engage visitors in conversation about the economy, the market, local unemployment and the city’s future. Those willing to take part are offered a £2 coin for their trouble.
Painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was nominated for her exhibition, Extracts and Verses, at Chisenhale Gallery, London. For the Turner Prize she is showing a series of her trademark portraits of fictional black characters. Spot-lit in a darkened room, the paintings are typically muted in their use of colour and the people featured are seemingly unconnected – there is no obvious linking narrative to these slightly mysterious, oddly theatrical works.
The winner of the Turner Prize will be announced at an awards ceremony at the gallery on Monday 2 December 2013 and will be broadcast to the public on Channel 4.
The Turner Prize exhibition continues at Ebrington, Derry-Londonderry until 5 January 2014. www.turnerprize2013.org
