The Penultimate Turner before the Turner comes to Derry.....
So the Turner shortlist for 2012 has been announced. A performance artist who renamed herself Spartacus, Paul Noble, who has created a fictional city inhabited by figures made of human excrement, Elizabeth Price, who makes sci-fi-inspired videos and Luke Fowler, who has made three films about psychiatrist RD Laing.
The prize, given to an artist under the age of 50 and with a £25,000 prize, is already famed for itsÌýcontroversy,Ìýwith annual regular attacks asking is it art? Ìý
The Times' Rachel Campbell Johnston on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster's Arts Extra tonight saysÌýthat it's a "shortlist for a world that feels that things have gone rather wrong.....it has a mad rather vaudevillian feel, like there's been aÌýkind of take over by the clowns". ÌýSo even she's a bit worried about where the Turner is going this year.
While this isn't the shortlist for Derry, and we won't know who the shortlisted four are until this time next year,ÌýI'm enjoyingÌýplaying around with the notion ofÌý doing a Jabba the Hut style performance piece in .ÌýEbrington is still theÌýpreferred site for hosting the Turner exhibition next October, only the third time to be outside of the Tate, after Liverpool and Gateshead, but locally I am hearing mounting concernsÌýabout the ability of the site to sustain not only a major art exhibition, but deal with the anticipated crowds.ÌýSome say thatÌýthe ambition to bring the Turner to Derry hasn't been matched - yet - with the scale, the drama, the sheer, overwhelmingÌýTurner-ness of what the prize is about.ÌýÌý
The Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, a purpose built visual arts space, was preparing for the Turner for over two years. With a year to go to Derry,Ìýthere appears to be no plan. I know there are hopes thatÌýby the middle of this month there will be a plan in action and a curatorial team on the ground to start the process. That's the shock at the moment. Not the art, which for the Turner is ironic.
The Turner Prize 2012 exhibition will be at Tate Britain, 20 October 2012 – 20ÌýJanuaryÌý2013. The winner will be announced live on Channel 4 on 3ÌýDecemberÌý2012
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