Finally, Wallinger wins it. Nominated once before (in 1995 when it went to Damien Hirst), this time round the Turner Prize was awarded to State Britain Wallinger’s meticulous reconstruction of protester Brian Haw’s Parliament Square peace camp, taken down under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, which restricts protests within a specified ‘exclusion zone’ round Parliament, part of which technically included the Tate Britain installation. A clever subversion of art to further political protest, or is it the other way round? Nevertheless, at the Turner Prize show, in soon-to-be-European-Capital-of-Culture Liverpool, he chose to show a piece featuring his aimless wanderings round a Berlin gallery, dressed in bear suit…
Did the right artist win? Adrian Searle thinks so in The Guardian, others (Bloggers, the Tabloid Press) might have different opinions, but though the prize is judged on the basis of exhibitions in the previous 12 months, Wallinger’s body of work, over the past two decades is so consistently strong, (my favourite sees him marching through football crowds with a huge union flag, emblazoned ‘Wallinger’) its hard to disagree.
Tags: Competitions and Awards
