This year’s Turner Prize exhibition opened to the public today at Tate Britain and, predictably perhaps, Spartacus Chetwynd – ‘a nudist who built her career on papier-mâché Star Wars characters’, in the words of the Daily Mail – has been attracting a lot of attention across the press.
Chetwynd has transformed her part of the gallery space into what has been described as a “carnivalesque setting”. There will be performances, including puppet shows and fortune telling, throughout the exhibition period.
Chetwynd’s work always demands the time and attention of the viewer and, says Tate Britain curator Lizzie Carey-Thomas, this is a characteristic shared by all four of this year’s shortlisted artists.
“What marks this year out is that all of the artists are interested in creating these immersive worlds that we’re invited into,” she said. “It’s all quite dense, complex and asks you to spend time with it.”
The time required to view Paul Noble’s work is nothing compared to the years he has spent creating his intricate pencil drawings of the imaginary city Nobson Newton. The project has been ongoing for 16 years; Noble has announced that it has now been completed.
Video artist Elizabeth Price is known for her attention to detail and the time and energy she puts into creating her finely tuned, emotionally and intellectually engaging pieces. She is exhibiting the 20-minute long The Woolworths Choir of 1979.
Glasgow artist Luke Fowler’s 2011 film All Divided Selves, about the Scottish psychiatrist RD Laing, clocks in at 90 minutes and mixes extensive archive material with Fowler’s own footage. It is the third film Fowler has made about Laing. If Fowler were to win, he would be the fourth Glasgow artist in a row to take the prize, following Richard Wright, Susan Philipsz and last year’s winner Martin Boyce.
The prize will be announced on December 3.
Turner Prize 2012 continues at Tate Britain until January 6, 2013.
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