Turner Prize 2016

Eclectic exhibition at Tate Britain of the shortlisted nominations for this year’s Turner Prize for contemporary art.

Helen Marten’s work consisted of sculptures based on collage like collections of found objects. The blurb said the three works suggested work stations but I must admit I didn’t get that. I’m afraid they gave me an urge to tidy up! I did like the unfired classic tea pots though!

Josephine Pryde presented a series of photographs of hands emphasising the point at which hands and objects meeting, a rather interesting concentrated study. However I preferred the fun “New Media Express on a Temporary Siding”, a model train which has been in various shows and has been tagged by graffiti artists in each city it has been shown in.

Michael Dean’s work was strange sculptures based on writing. He makes casts of words and then distorts them. I must admit it was lost on me! I did like his installation “United Kingdom Poverty Line for Tow Adults and Two Children” which was a pile of £2436 in pennies from which he had taken away 1p so that the amount was less than the poverty line. An imaginative way of showing this.

My favourite was Anthea Hamilton with her fabulous large bottom, originally designed to be the entrance to a New York apartment block, the fun man’s suit in a brick design and for this show a floor to ceiling mural of the London sky on a sunny day in June. What is wrong with art that makes you happy?

Closes on 2 January 2017

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