turner prize 2001
Richard Billingham
Martin Creed
Isaac Julian
Mike Nelson
Martin
Creed's perfectly designed Turner winner, the installation, 'A Light Going On
and Off' attracted all the media attention this year and he went home 20 grand
better off. It's a six year old idea from Creed, who decided that the context
of having an enormous building, housing an enormously public show, in an enormous
room was exactly the right place to say 'hey, you know bugger all about art, now
eat this', and 'hey you, so you're into art yeah?... geddit?' Too tempting for
an artist I'm sure.
Martin Creed and Turner Prize
giver Madonna
It's
fun to get up people's noses at times, but to reinforce this 'us and them' factor
doesn't work. If he says he didn't mean to, I would believe him and accept the
explanation, because as artists we like to stick together on these sorts of things.
Maybe it's a
snub at the prize, or a snub to the viewer, either way it bored. I looked up at
the light in the hope that maybe something might reveal itself to me, after all,
it caused my mind to bounce a little on the way in on the tube. So why is nothing
happening now? She's nice. Wouldn't it be a pisser to leave your screwdriver on
the floor. That was about it I think.
Creed and light
I
spent a number of lessons trying to explain the piece to the kids I teach, but
they weren't having any of it. I went back to what a body of work means, where
ideas go to, where they came from, and where they might go to. Art isn't just
a singular object placed in situ out of the blue and given a name I explained
(which is what most of the kids believe [1]), but part of something bigger, a
plan, a ramble... and that to reduce things was as much a part of making art as
building things up. Progression of ideas, can be, in fact, traditionally is/was,
illustrated through reduction. I mentioned Craig Martin's succinct comment on
his Oak Tree piece. [2] Frowns all round. I mentioned the avant-garde gesture,
how Creed both acknowledges its virtual redundancy, but still has a bash at it,
therefore creating that all important insider gag. I tried to make analogies about
the pleasure one gets from tidying up the bedroom, which didn't work. Or having
a haircut, throwing things out, a nice shaped cloud... that keeping things simple
did not mean that we were being short changed. I explained how Westlife and S
Club 7 were shite and that the White Stripes were 'Fuckin' 'A'. Easy, except for
the one girl who looked close to tears. I got out some photos of Robert Ryman's
work and talked about the show he had a few years back and how much it kicked
ass... about Malevich's final white square which got a small 'wow' and a few 'what?''s...
Bacon's light bulbs... 6th form existentialism... but nothing, NOTHING, persuaded
them that Creed's temperamental light bulb was art, yet alone good art.
-
For all this
though, I like the piece, not his best by a long way, but OK, and it's true that
as the infamous 'Empire' works more as an idea, so does this. It's a valid work,
yet too abject for the wider public who venture out to look at art... coach loads
of public who venture out to look at art, or rather the business of art in London.
But for all the
fracas, press, beards and Madonna, the Turner exhibition is becoming flatter and
blander by the year. The TV programme is bland, the tabloid coverage bland, and
the show bland. It's as safe as houses, injected with a little kink of controversy
to help it on its way. Even the protestations are bland. The Stuckists flicked
torches on and off outside the Tate during the prize ceremony in protest at having
conceptual art figuring so highly on the short-list again, which must have been
scary for all concerned.
Why
does anyone protest outside this lame prize anyway!? It might seem worth while,
but it gives the Turner an undeserved levity. Bomb the place. You might as well
protest against Kilroy because he is unable to debate, and unable to construct,
yet alone hold, a balanced argument [3]. To me it's a little sad to dress up in
costumes to stand outside the Tate waving placards... but even so, I'm kind of
on their side. The Turner can be paralleled with the Ideal Homes Exhibition, and
needs some hassle, but you'd hope that any 'movement' could prove their point
through the quality of work etc. Direct action here feels false. If you're getting
agro from the bowler, don't try to carve him all over the park from the off, look
for the singles, and dispatch the bad ball. When you get to 50, then blow him
a kiss. Now carve.
-
The prize, and
this is not to be belittled, has been sponsored and televised by Channel 4 for
the last decade or so, and shares some blame I'm afraid. CH4 used to be a good
place to sit in front of, and 'controversial' at times too, but the edge has softened
there as well [4]. Channel 4 is all knowing cool, café latte hip, the Carhartt
sticker on the fridge, the new Vespa, and not the bolshy rebellion of say, The
Comic Strip/ Tube era, and what that era of programming seemed to symbolise [5].
Now every programme feels as if its only existence is to sell that all important
spin-off book or video, which gets tagged onto the end time and time again, so
maybe it's a good marriage. It's also gradually drifted across to a more Loaded/FHM
mentality which has to be a worry. And during the summer, Mark Nicholas's haircut
will be on screen again. [6]
[7]
Richard Billingham's "Liz
smoking, 2000" Continuous looped video projection, video still. Courtesy
Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, © the artist.
So...
to the 'losers'. I was looking forward to seeing Richard Billinghams work, but
if flatness were to be applauded, there would be an encore. Maybe I should have
feared the worst when he said he, 'just want[ed] to make the most moving picture
I can.' Maybe not. Maybe I wanted him to move me, well... I did of course... you
do when someone says they're going to have a go at it, but such subjective posturing
on perceived universal truths is a dead end alley, there has to be something else,
something more. [8] One photo of a girl lying on a beach made me think, 'Now what
the hell's all that about!?', 'where does this come into it?'. I understand him
wanting to get away from what he's been doing so far, but feel there are more
failures to come before he re-finds his form. Indeed, it is majorly to his credit
that he is up for making mistakes. The second album is the hardest and all that
jazz. [9]
Billingham
has made some good disarming pieces in the past, and I'm sure, going by the telly,
in the present too, but none unfortunately were on show at the Tate. That video
of a relative smoking, but replayed backwards, did sit nicely against one of Isaac
Julien's films though. Julien's film which, split into two screens, one mirroring
the other, shows the same retarded formal idea as Billinghams. Jesus, is it still
OK to replay a half baked idea backwards as it is to just errr... stick a mirror
image on the other side to make it art(y)? It's the sort of thing that would be
laughed at in colleges all over the western world, for the last 10-20 years, and
yet... wow... it's a valid idea again!
I
quite liked Julien's cowboy triptych however. This time there was some invention
and playfulness going on, some depth, some poetics. But all that production gloss,
the largish crew, cash and time couldn't hide the fact that he's not much of an
artist, but a filmmaker. Julien acknowledges this poseur... 'Am I making art?'
when he makes his films. Well, it's not Isaac, it's a film OK? Good.
Isaac Julien "Vagabondia
2000" Double DVD read projection video (detail) Courtesy of Victoria Miro
Gallery, London. © the artist
Mike
Nelson's installation frustrated, but this time it was a pleasant annoyance. I
couldn't picture in my mind, or rather nail down a picture, of who and what went
on in this 'store room' he made. Nelson is a bit of a cross between Fischli/Weiss
and Gordon Matta-Clark, with Duchamp's Etant donnés thrown in now and again. He
recreates invented spaces, digging them up from his imagination, and building
them from scratch with an appalling amount of detail. Dialogues and stories merge
and contradict, a hyperreality which has never existed in reality, exists now.
It would fail utterly if the detail wasn't so total, but he succeeds. You are
transported somewhere else, and there is much fun to come from Nelson I'm sure.
Mike Nelson "The Resurrection
of Captain Mission," 2000 Mixed media Courtesy of Matt's Gallery, London,
© the artist.
notes
[1] 'So I can just put this piece of paper on the table and call it art?'
... after that Manzoni example...: 'So I could just write my name on my hand,
call it art and make millions?' 'No, Johnny, you can write on your hand, call
it art and be laughed at,... then maybe make your million.' 'Eh?'
[2] Something
like, 'It took quite a while to realise I could do it.'
[3] Early morning
chatshow/'topical' discussion host, and fun to try and force your girlfriend to
watch it while you have sex. Read topical as sensationalist. You know the score.
[4] But it still has its moments... Brass Eye, Sopranos, onedottv and the
sublime Jackass... wow... The Minutemen on TV! Yeah!
[5] Channel 4 has the
excellent and cheap subscription channel FilmFour, many Bunuel films that never
get put onto terrestrial TV etc... even Network (1976) got on there (hasn't been
on terrestrial TV for at least 7 years - I know this because I've checked every
week for 7 years) but you'll never be far away from another viewing of Taxi Driver,
Trainspotting, Apocalypse Now, Secrets and Lies, Priscilla etc, Trainspotting,
Reservoir Dogs, Trainspotting...
[6] Cricket presenter.
[7] I deleted
a paragraph about soft-porn, which included an analogy between Craig David and
something about bringing back hanging here.
[8] 'I want to .... the most
.... that I can.' Insert a new verb then noun. I should also say that he had cameras
on him, and when the lens is peering at you, you can come up with all sorts of
cack you didn't mean. Not that it's a cack ambition you understand.
[9] except
for say, Trumans Water.
Further
Turner Prize material at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,8542,498681,00.html
