So MarkWallinger won the Turner Prize then. No real surprise there. The work on the shortlist was pretty underwhelming, and the build up in Liverpool was a bit insulting to be honest. Obviously with this being the first Turner Prize show outside of London they made a bit of a fuss about it, and the advertising campaign was nothing short of patronising to the people of Liverpool. This led to the art critic from ‘The Times’ claiming the opinions of the Liverpool public were worth shit all.
Another point scored there, in segregating the art world from the public. Woo Hoo!
To be fair to Mark Wallinger his performance video ‘Sleeper‘ was really good. I liked it alot, and found it pretty funny, but it was really his installation ‘State Britain‘ that won him the prize. A reconstruction of a one man protest outside of the houses of parliament, which was subsequently removed by the police. Wallinger has imortilised Brian Haw’s protest with a great sinserity and truth to it. A two finger gesture to the police who removed the original.
That makes for a worthy winner me thinks. Its just a shame it had to be the Turner Prize that drew our attention to this guy. His ability to mix the serious with humour is something I would love to see more of quite frankly. Lets hope he carries on in the same vain.
