It’s Turner Prize season, the annual prestigious, and sometimes controversial, art prize awarded to a British visual artist. Named after the English painter J M W Turner, past nominees and winners have included Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Jeremy Deller,The Chapman Brothers, Isaac Julien, Anish Kapoor, Rachel WhitereadWolfgang Tillmans, Lucien Freud and Gilbert & George. So it’s safe to say the competition attracts the Who’s Who of British art.
This year is the 40th anniversary of the competition and the prize will be announced on 3rd December. Ahead of that, Tate Britain has unveiled an exhibition of the work of this year’s four artists shortlisted for the prize. These are Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson,Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas.
Jasleen Kaur, my favourite artist in the show, creates sculptures from gathered and remade objects, taking inspiration from her Asian upbringing in Glasgow. A huge fake Axminster carpet lies under a Perspex suspended ceiling on which lie evocative memories of her youth. These include cans of Irn-Bru, fake vomit, turmeric covered fake nails and family photos. An accompanying soundtrack explores inherited and hidden histories. Sociomobile 2023 comprises a vintage Ford Escort covered with a large cotton crocheted doily. Genius.
Claudette Johnson uses pastels, gouache, oil and watercolour to create striking figurative portraits of Black women and men.
Delaine Le Bas has transformed her gallery into an immersive environment filled with painted fabric and floors, costume, film and sculpture. Themes of death, loss and renewal are explored.
Pio Abad uses drawing, sculpture and museum artefacts to explore cultural loss and colonial histories, drawing from his Filipino heritage. A highlight here is Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite, 2019, which reimagines an Imelda Marcos bracelet as a three-metre concrete sculpture.
Overall, a strong show, on at Tate Britain, London until 16th February 2025 www.tate.org.uk
Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
PS Queerguru would like to ask YOU for a favor. In the present political/social climate there has been an extraordinary increase of rampant homophobia aimed at queer sites like ours. Its handed out anonymously by geeks at all the major Social Media Sites who seem so intent on completely destroying all of us. So far YOU TUBE banned our Channel without warning or any possibility of redress or recovery. We are not that easy to dismiss and we still have a presence on SM BUT from now on the ONLY PLACE TO SEE OUR CONTENT TOTALLY UNCENSORED is on https://www.queerguru.com PLEASE ensure you sign up so you don’t miss a thing ……. and yes, our YOU TUBE CHANNEL is back as we are painstakingly trying to republish as many of the original 2000 videos we had posted
Labels: 2024, Tate Gallery, Turner Prize
