The Turner Prize features the work of four British artists aged under 50 selected on the basis of an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the past 12 months. The exhibition is intended not only to represent the cutting edge of art in this country, but also to raise debate and heighten awareness of the visual arts. With a handsome prize of £40,000, it is a contest between artworks that are highly individual, so making an assessment is like comparing apples and pears. Some years are more controversial than others. Martin Creed’s light going on and off in the gallery raised the ire of many, but he went on to win.
This year is altogether more bland, but nevertheless thoughtful – even if it lacks a powerful visual presence, opting instead for sound, banks of video or painting on or off the wall. The one thing all four have in common is a concern with investigating the past in some form, however obliquely.
Glaswegian artist Susan Philipsz fills the gallery with the haunting, melancholic sound of her singing, unaccompanied, a traditional folk song bewailing the death of her sailor at sea. The lament holds the imagination, conjuring up times past and times present.
More conventional are Dexter Dalwood’s colourful “political” paintings that deal with contentious events or characters. The Death of David Kelly addresses the mysterious demise of the scientist who came to public attention when an unauthorised discussion he had off the record with a BBC journalist questioning the value of the British Government’s dossier on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Dalwood’s seductive image of a tree set against the moon in a dark blue sky is only revealed as the setting for David Kelly’s death when the title is read. This also applies to other images such as the heady Burroughs in Tangier and Herman Melville, which need to be deconstructed to reveal the irony of the subject.
Angela de la Cruz’s subject is art itself, merging painting and sculpture in one homogenous whole. She literally deconstructs and dismantles paintings, freeing the brightly painted monochrome canvas from the frame to lie on the floor or lean against the wall. Some take on vague figurative references such as in Clutter I, in which the bed-like form could or could not be occupied, or Deflated IV, a cloak-like shape hanging on the wall. The interrogation of art itself results in curious forms that are both mysterious and vaguely unsettling.
Altogether more challenging in terms of time and thought are the two installations by the Otolith Group who use film, photo-works, writings and discussion to “explore the power of the moving image”, arguing that there is no memory without image. Otolith III, a film partly inspired by director Satyajit Ray’s screenplay for his unmade 1967 film The Alien, includes such diverse clips as the first cosmonaut to orbit the earth and television coverage of interwar anti-war protests.
Equally ambitious is Inner time of Television, which reconfigures Chris Marker’s 13-part television series about Ancient Greek heritage. Both works demand time to sit and decode the references, which occasionally click into place.
Each of the four artists offers a personal vision in multi-layered works that looks below the surface, so there is no outstanding winner. The conventional choice would be Dexter Dalwood, the risky one Susan Philipsz – but only by the narrowest of margins.
The Turner Prize continues until January 3 2011
