I went to the turner Prize exhibit in Liverpool yesterday. I have to say i wasn’t expecting great things from a selection of artists that included man who just moved a protest a few miles down the river, another who constructs stripy temples and a woman who photographs, well, nobody.
However, i found myself presently surprised. Mike Nelson’s appropriately titled ‘Amnesiac Shrine’ is beautifully simple. It’s sealed rooms hiding seemingly endless dark, sandy, landscapes are most probably a reference to middle eastern conflict, but for me they evoke something less tangible, Nelson invites us to peer into the thoughts of an imaginary gang gulf war veterans and the result was that i felt uncomfortable doing so, the maze-like structure of the installation is disorientating, like wandering through someone else’s private space.
Nathan Coley on the other hand attepmts to enter a more public realm by challenging belief systems. Unfortunately i found the disjointed selection of his works on offer to be stark and fairly unengaging. According to the Curators ‘Hope and Glory’, an incomplete scale model of a house calls into question of British patriotism and the changing state of our national identity. What i feel actually comes across however, is a house, bare and over-simplified. If it’s supposed to explore the notion of identity, why is it so bereft of one? I found it very difficult to connect with any of Coley’s works, I felt shut off from understanding his intentions, mostly by their physical arrangement, which includes two wooden beams across the floor of the entrance and exit that you have to step over.
The winner Mark Wallinger’s choice to show ‘Sleeper’ as opposed to the infamous ‘State Britain’ was a good one. Yes, essentially it is a man in his late forties wandering round a museum dressed as a bear, and yes, it is a bit silly, but what’s wrong with that? It’s not as though art has never been humorous before. Perhaps people were expecting the screamingly obvious social criticism of some of his previous work. In ‘The Sleeper’ the commentary is still there but it’s much more subtle the title is a reference to wartime espionage and the lost bear draws on feelings of displacement. But above all it’s entertaining, and that should not be considered to be a detrimental quality.
Although i was very impressed by ‘The Sleeper’, to my own suprise, having never been that interested in video art, i find myself most moved by the work of Zarina Bhimji. Her photographs of ‘nobody’ present an overwhelming feeling of absense and loss. She hints towards the reasons for he lack of human presence, particularly in ‘Illegal Sleep’ giving it a political emphasis, but for me what stands out is the large, pale, washed out, empty spaces and uneasy angles that create a strong sense of longing. ‘Waiting’ is a stunningly put together piece of film that takes the atmosphere present in her photos one step futher. it’s eerily beautiful footage of an empty sisal factory that highlights the balances between presence and absense and the conflict between natural and the industrial.
So, after arriving at the exhibition with very low expectations for this years shortlist, and feeling bitter that i missed out last year on seeing an Actual painter, I’m pleased to say I came away inspired and feeling that at lest 3 of the candidates deserved to be there.
Posted: January 7th, 2008 under Reviews.
Comments: none
