The Turner Prize winner was announced last night at Tate Britain. This year’s finalists covered a range of themes; immigration, racism
44-year-old Glasgow-based artist Charlotte Prodger was named the winner of the £25,000 prize by the novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the ceremony at Tate Britain London. Her film Bridgit is a coming out story that was shot entirely on an iphone. It is set in Aberdeenshire in the early 90s.
She told the BBC reporter “The stories that I’m telling, although they’re mine and they’re personal, are stories that a lot of people – I guess queer people – have experienced”.
Accepting the award Prodger acknowledged her friends for their support but she also mentioned “I wouldn’t be in this room without public funding” reinstating the importance of funding the Arts.
Charlotte Prodger, BRIDGIT, 2016 – excerpt from Film London on Vimeo.
Maria Balshaw, the Director of Tate said in her speech: “This year the artists have given us a remarkable show. In different ways, all of the work provokes thought. Each tackles pressing matters that face society today, issues of identity, inequality, power, gender, migration
She went on to refer to the importance of giving civic spaces to artists to “encounter” their ideas. She made specific reference to artists in Cuba, in particular, Tania Bruguera, the artist in the Turbine Hall in the Tate, who is one of the artists currently being detained by Cuban authorities while defending their right to creative freedom. “So our thoughts tonight are with Tania and her fellow artists in Cuba” she adds. The response was a rapturous applause from the audience.
The runners up include Forensic Architecture, a research agency based at Goldsmiths University of London, New Zealand artist Luke Willis Thompson and Naeem Mohaiemen.
Victoria Pomery is director of Turner Contemporary in Margate. J.W Turner is the great British Romantic painter who the
The BBC reporter asked her what she thought Turner would think of the show. Her response “I think J.W Turner would absolutely of loved this show. I think he would see these artists as being absolutely radical in their thinking, but also really using technology in new and different ways … Turner would have really appreciated the breadth and depth of the work on display “.
There are no painters or sculptors among this year’s Turner prize finalists. It’s all filmmakers among the shortlist chosen this year. The show does, however, cover a range of disciplines. The work by the shortlisted is very of the moment in terms of what is happening today in the world. To see the exhibition in full you will need at least 4/5 hours.
‘The Turner Prize 2018’ is on view at the Tate Britain, London, UK, until 6 January 2019.
Location: Tate Gallery, Britain, London
