Glasgow-Born Sound Artist Susan Philipsz Wins 2010 Turner Prize
December 7, 2010 by All Art News
Filed under Art Events & Exhibitions
LONDON (REUTERS).- Glasgow-born Susan Philipsz, the first artist working primarily in sound to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize, is the winner of Britain’s most prestigious art award when it is announced later Monday.
Her “Lowlands” installation for the Turner Prize exhibition held each year at the Tate Britain gallery in London features only her voice singing old Scottish laments through a three-channel sound system.
- Glasgow-born artist Susan Philipsz (C) is escorted towards her work after hearing the announcement that she has won the Turner Prize 2010, at the Tate Britain gallery, in central London December 6, 2010. Philipsz became the first sound artist to win Britain’s Turner Prize on Monday, justifying her position as bookmakers’ favourite for the annual award worth 25,000 pounds ($40,000) to the winner. REUTERS/Andrew Winning.
The work is based on a similar installation originally played underneath three bridges in Scotland as part of the Glasgow International festival of visual art.
Of the other three nominees for the prize, painter Dexter Dalwood was installed as second favorite.
His paintings for the Turner show tackle well known moments from recent history, including “Death of David Kelly.”
The image of a tree against a moonlit sky is Dalwood’s representation of the suicide of the British weapons expert who was found dead in 2003 after being named as the source of a BBC report that the British government had exaggerated the weapons of mass destruction case for going to war in Iraq.
Angela de la Cruz questions the definition of painting by taking her work into three dimensions by twisting and contorting the wooden frames to which her brightly colored canvases are attached.
And London-based video artists The Otolith Group, comprising Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar, is preoccupied with reviving forgotten works of the past.
Its installation includes a 26-minute film partially inspired by a screenplay by Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray called “The Alien,” which was never made.
Previous winners of the award, which has thrived on controversy over the years, include Grayson Perry, a cross-dressing ceramicist, and Martin Creed, whose installation in 2001 featured lights going on and off in an empty room.
The winner receives a check for 25,000 pounds ($40,000).
