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December 4, 2024 - 1:00pm
Jasleen Kaur has been announced as the 2024 Turner Prize winner. According to the BBC, judges praised the artist for her “unexpected and playful combinations of materials”. The BBC was entirely correct in describing the combination in her entry, Sociomobile, as “unexpected” — I was certainly surprised to stumble upon a doily-covered Ford Escort in Tate Britain, a national gallery. And “playful” could perhaps refer to a deceitful trick masking itself as art.
Ultimately, this development is another example of the abandonment of artistic principles which increasingly characterises public institutions in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1984 to stimulate interest in contemporary art and contribute to the Tate’s acquisition of new work, the Turner Prize is symbolic in this respect.
Contemporary art provokes controversy by its very nature. Artists rework and test the limits of established visual languages in order to describe the modern experience. Institutions — through the actions of acquisition and display — affirm and present certain art-historical narratives, and by doing so indicate value. This is especially fraught for public institutions, which allocate taxpayers’ money towards certain types of art. The Turner Prize is unapologetic in its accreditation of artistic worth: cash is awarded annually to four “outstanding” artists, including one overall winner, all of whom are decided by a jury.
The problem is, experiments in artistic expression have increasingly shifted from aesthetic concerns to those rooted in concept and political self-flagellation. The desperation to be “radical” or represent “overlooked histories” results in works that share the same hoary terminology.
Several of the shortlisted artists for this year’s Turner Prize presented their work from a “decolonial” perspective. Interrogation of British identity and its shadows of Empire are certainly influenced by the national remit of the competition. The Turner Prize is awarded to a British artist, which unsurprisingly invites discussion about what it means to be “British”, as per the competition webpage.
The installation of another shortlisted artist, Pio Abad, comprises long wall texts denouncing the American government for its treatment of the Philippines. Meanwhile, judges commended Kaur’s work for “speaking imaginatively to how we might live together in a world increasingly marked by nationalism, division and social control”. These two artists presented work with the least grounding in reality out of the four nominees. Kaur’s assemblage of objects is practically impenetrable without explanation, while Abad may as well have pasted pages from Edward Said’s Orientalism on the wall.
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SubscribeAs an iconic piece of 1980s industrial design and engineering, the third-generation Ford Escort truly deserves the Turner Prize. Not sure what that doily thing is doing draped over it though…
The doily represents the domestication and familiarization of mass industrial processes, using a decolonial praxis of radical playfulness, in a time of complacency over the role of
This, from ChatGPT:
Nailed it!
I couldn’t have put it better myself. Not that I would have wanted to. Gobbledygook.
There’s a Tony Hancock episode “The bedsit” in which he takes on a bohemian and intellectual life. He decides to have a go at Bernard Russell. Opens the book and immediately goes for the dictionary.
Hours later, we return to see he’s still on page one.
Reader, I am Hancock
I was a little disappointed it wasn’t an XR3i, with “egg poacher” wheels.
Yes, the third (and fourth) generation Escort was a pretty good car. Just as well they chose that and not the fifth gen version which was far less well received. MkI really is the one to go for though. The classic car prices don’t lie.
The car is both better and older than the artist. The plastic wheel arch trims are really letting it down though.
Beats me why anyone pays any attention to any of these prizes these days.
Parasites!
Had to laugh at this; “The installation of another shortlisted artist, Pio Abad, comprises long wall texts denouncing the American government for its treatment of the Philippines.”
Maybe the artist prefers the treatment the Philippines is currently subjected to by China.
But it’s the same controversy every time, and the only shock is that something this uninspired and uninspiring is winning a prize. And even that isn’t really a shock anymore.
Yes no shock at all – just a yawn at the unoriginality and banality of the offering.
Conceptual art is designed to demand existential questions of the engaged observer. This piece succeeds magnificently.
How would the windscreen wipers work?
Deep man, deep
By ‘modern art’ what you mean is leftism. Leftist art is leftism. Who cares. If you really want to wind up leftists, then stop paying attention to their slop and focus on actual art, both traditional and modern.
Ignore the Turner prize and set up and counter prize for actual art, and pay no attention at all to leftist ‘art’. Leftists are trolls who want your attention.
The monetary value of the Turner prize is only about £20k and the only reason people pay any attention to it, aside from artists, is to mock it. It just makes the news because it’s so ridiculous, which makes it look like peopke care, but they don’t.
Pretentious crap! The jury must have fascinated eating dinner parties at which they debate the artistic expression and different meanings of each identical dinner plate.
There was an ad, years ago. Some art critics were discussing the merits of some cleaning equipment at an art gallery. Of course, the cleaner came to collect them to get on with her work.
Just two things.
Modern artists will produce whatever is “modern”, but art is probably the oldest means of cultural communication, and what survives has meaning for humans in any era. There are other artists producing work right now that may resonate far more meaningfully in 200/500 years (if we’re still around).
Anything in a gallery that either includes text, or requires text, doesn’t belong there.
I wish the taxpayer was relieved of the burden of funding art.
I think a morris marina would have had more resonance
“I was certainly surprised to stumble upon a doily-covered Ford Escort in Tate Britain, a national gallery”
Less of a surprise if it were the Tate Modern, I guess.
So… the “Volkswagen On My Drive” is actually an art installation? Unless I’m driving to the shops, of course.
Tell that to the Parking Person that wants to ticket it if you leave it on double yellow lines. Philistine leave my installation unblemished by your ugly ticket!
Wot about the number plate?
A. 2 BAC.
Can ChatGPT reveal all ?
Isn’t this a Marcel Duchamp readymade?
Yes, not very avant garde is it after a century has passed.