When I heard the Turner Prize was being exhibited and hosted in Sussex, it definitely made it onto my ‘must-see’ list for this Autumn.
The Turner Prize is probably the world’s best known art event, and is awarded to a British contemporary artist for either an outstanding exhibit or other presentation of work in the past 12 months. Previous winners include Grayson Perry, Rachel Whiteread, Anish Kapoor and Damien Hurst.
So on a wet and windy Thursday, we set off for Eastbourne to visit the exhibit at the Towner Gallery. I wasn’t really sure what to expect…
There are 4 shortlisted artists – and the award ceremony is being held on 5 December. The whole exhibition was free to enter, and it was great to see the amount of accessible and inclusive tools and resources available to ensure the widest audience possible could enjoy the art.
The first set of exhibits were by Ghislaine Leung, who focuses on the conditions of art production, its presentation and circulation. As I understood it, Leung creates text-based instructions/descriptions that are then executed by the gallery team. And so this execution obviously changes with every team that realises it. It’s interesting conceptually, and I quite like the idea that the piece changes with every interpretation and every context, but, I guess, at a basic level, some pipes and a water fountain just wasn’t that understandable – and even less so if you hadn’t read the descriptions or watched the video.
Rory Pilgrim uses song writing, film, texts, drawings, paintings and live performance in his work – challenging the nature of how we come together, speak, listen and achieve social change. His film, RAFTS was made during the pandemic – a raft keeping us afloat in challenging or dangerous times.
We didn’t get to see the whole film, as there were specific screening times, so we only ducked into about 10 mins worth, unfortunately. The film is narrated by residents of Barking and Dagenham from Green Shoes Arts and includes singers and members of Barking and Dagenham Youth Dance. It really felt like this had been made in and with the community and took contributions from a wide and diverse set of people. While it was definitely interesting and I would love to have seen more, it felt like something I might watch on TV, rather than a piece of award-winning art. But what do I know, I’ll probably be totally surprised by the time the entries are judged.
The absolute stand out of the show for me, was the exhibit by Barbara Walker. And not just this show – it’s one of the best exhibitions I’ve seen. I’m still thinking about it now.
In Burden of Proof, Walker directs our focus towards the individuals, families and communities whose lives have been touched by the Windrush scandal. The work shows really impactful large-scale charcoal figures intricately sketched directly onto the gallery wall, accompanied by a compelling series of surrounding images. Through monochrome portraits, Walker layers poignant images of those affected by the scandal over meticulously hand-drawn reproductions of documents that underscore their right to remain in the UK.
This thought-provoking display really encouraged me to contemplate on the genuine repercussions of these political decisions. This work stands as a powerful exploration of the human stories that sit behind (and are directly impacted by) bureaucratic cruelty – and you get a real sense that the people were forgotten as the documentation became the important thing.
The wall drawings will be washed away at the end of the exhibition, to signify erasure and disappearance.
And lastly, I was excited for Jesse Darling’s entry, which promised ‘an installation that explores borders, bodies, nationhood and exclusion’. Unfortunately I didn’t like it. I guess crash barriers, barbed wire and net curtains do that – but it all felt a bit clichéd to me. There didn’t seem to be any fresh or new thinking around that theme…but hey, that’s just to my untrained eyes.
So, while two were a definite ‘no’ for me, if you go along just to see Barbara Walker’s Burden of Proof it won’t be a wasted visit. And there’s a public art trail and other events in the town worth sticking around for.
Turner Prize – 28 September 2023 to 14 April 2024 (free admission).