Turner Prize 2017

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0:00:02 > 0:00:03Hi, I'm Brenda Emmanus

0:00:03 > 0:00:06and you are watching a Front Row Turner Prize special.

0:00:06 > 0:00:09The Turner Prize is one of the highlights of the arts calendar

0:00:09 > 0:00:11and ahead of the awards ceremony next Tuesday,

0:00:11 > 0:00:15I've come to Hull, where four of the nominees of this coveted prize

0:00:15 > 0:00:17are exhibiting their work.

0:00:19 > 0:00:22Coming up, I meet with Hull-born Maureen Lipman

0:00:22 > 0:00:26in the Ferens Art Gallery, for a personal tour around the exhibition.

0:00:26 > 0:00:30Hurvin Anderson just puts his hand in paint.

0:00:31 > 0:00:35Works inspired by satirical crockery, barbershops,

0:00:35 > 0:00:39jaunty potatoes and the uncertainty of life in Gaza.

0:00:40 > 0:00:44We showcase the four artists nominated for this year's prize.

0:00:45 > 0:00:47In the studio, we will be discussing what the Turner Prize

0:00:47 > 0:00:51reveals about the current state of British contemporary art.

0:00:53 > 0:00:56And playing live, Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed.

0:01:01 > 0:01:05The Turner Prize is probably Britain's most notorious arts prize.

0:01:05 > 0:01:09Think unmade beds, pickled cows and bare bums.

0:01:09 > 0:01:11Each year, four contemporary artists

0:01:11 > 0:01:13who, in the opinion of an illustrious art world jury,

0:01:13 > 0:01:16have made an outstanding contribution to art

0:01:16 > 0:01:21in the last 12 months are chosen to compete for the prize of £25,000.

0:01:21 > 0:01:24With me in the studio to discuss nominations

0:01:24 > 0:01:26and all things Turner

0:01:26 > 0:01:28are photographer David Bailey,

0:01:28 > 0:01:29artist Polly Morgan

0:01:29 > 0:01:32and critic and broadcaster Waldemar Januszczak.

0:01:32 > 0:01:35- Welcome to you all.- Hello. - Thank you, hello.

0:01:35 > 0:01:38The Turner Prize has been going since 1984

0:01:38 > 0:01:42and it's in the fifth year that it's been exhibited outside of London.

0:01:42 > 0:01:46This year, it's in Hull, 2017 City of Culture.

0:01:46 > 0:01:50I met up with Hull-born Maureen Lipman at the Ferens Art Gallery

0:01:50 > 0:01:52to find out what it means to the city

0:01:52 > 0:01:54to host this famously divisive award.

0:02:02 > 0:02:07What I really love is the difference in styles.

0:02:10 > 0:02:15This is a year when Hull is welcoming everybody to the city.

0:02:15 > 0:02:18Do you think this is an accessible exhibition?

0:02:18 > 0:02:21I do think it's accessible.

0:02:21 > 0:02:24I think it's not as shocking as we expect from the Turner Prize.

0:02:24 > 0:02:26I don't think there's anything here that you would stand here

0:02:26 > 0:02:29and say, as they would in Hull, "My dog could do that!"

0:02:32 > 0:02:35Andrea, she does these woodcuts.

0:02:35 > 0:02:39The process is absolutely breathtaking.

0:02:43 > 0:02:45I would like to take this whole room home with me.

0:02:45 > 0:02:50- Beautiful, that, and it's just... - His use of colour is amazing.

0:02:50 > 0:02:52I mean, this, you could sit and meditate forever,

0:02:52 > 0:02:55- couldn't you, some of these images? - Yeah.- Do you have a favourite?

0:02:55 > 0:02:57Oh, in here? Yes, this is my baby.

0:02:58 > 0:03:02I could look at that for ever.

0:03:02 > 0:03:03And I've got a feeling that

0:03:03 > 0:03:05Hurvin Anderson

0:03:05 > 0:03:09- just puts his hand in paint. - And plays.

0:03:09 > 0:03:10And plays.

0:03:10 > 0:03:13What do you feel about having an exhibition here,

0:03:13 > 0:03:15bringing the Turner to Hull?

0:03:15 > 0:03:18To have the Turner Prize here,

0:03:18 > 0:03:22as well as in the Year of Culture, it's a big thing for Hull.

0:03:22 > 0:03:25This city has responded very positively

0:03:25 > 0:03:29to being singled out for its good qualities.

0:03:29 > 0:03:32If we look at the Ferens alone,

0:03:32 > 0:03:36people of Hull have been seduced slightly by the art, by culture.

0:03:36 > 0:03:39I think, in their own inimitable way,

0:03:39 > 0:03:42they have decided this is good for Hull.

0:03:43 > 0:03:45And I hope to God it is!

0:03:51 > 0:03:53So, Waldemar, what does it mean

0:03:53 > 0:03:55to have the Turner Prize outside London?

0:03:55 > 0:03:57Do you think it important?

0:03:57 > 0:04:00Well, it's a good thing. The Turner Prize is always impactful.

0:04:00 > 0:04:02It has done its bit in London, hasn't it?

0:04:02 > 0:04:05It has played a part in changing the way British people

0:04:05 > 0:04:07think about contemporary art, cos I think it has done that,

0:04:07 > 0:04:09so perhaps sending it out there

0:04:09 > 0:04:11to see how great contemporary art can be -

0:04:11 > 0:04:13when it is a good Turner Prize, that is, of course.

0:04:13 > 0:04:16Polly, do you like the idea of it travelling?

0:04:16 > 0:04:18Yes, absolutely, it's a British art prize, isn't it?

0:04:18 > 0:04:21So, I think to expect everyone to come down to London to see it

0:04:21 > 0:04:23is a bit much, it's nice to take it to them.

0:04:23 > 0:04:26David, do you think that artists should be judged by competition?

0:04:26 > 0:04:28Do you think it's a good way to judge art?

0:04:28 > 0:04:31Not really.

0:04:31 > 0:04:34I don't understand, because who chooses the judges?

0:04:34 > 0:04:40It's so... It's so abstract, in a way, so who do you get to...

0:04:40 > 0:04:42Who chooses the people that are going to choose?

0:04:42 > 0:04:43I couldn't choose,

0:04:43 > 0:04:46because I wouldn't put myself in that position,

0:04:46 > 0:04:48because I wouldn't say someone is good

0:04:48 > 0:04:51or someone is bad, because it's not my job.

0:04:51 > 0:04:52Maybe it's his job.

0:04:52 > 0:04:54I'm not sure if David cares much about the Turner Prize,

0:04:54 > 0:04:56but do the public like it, do they enjoy the Turner prize?

0:04:56 > 0:04:59Well, they turn up in large numbers, don't they?

0:04:59 > 0:05:00I was at Channel 4 when Channel 4

0:05:00 > 0:05:02put it on television for the first time,

0:05:02 > 0:05:05and I remember the first show had 50,000 people coming to see it.

0:05:05 > 0:05:08By the time you got to the second, there was 150,000.

0:05:08 > 0:05:11I mean, for reasons that are often to do with notoriety,

0:05:11 > 0:05:14the fact that it's on page one of the Sun or whatever it is,

0:05:14 > 0:05:16those reasons got people through the door,

0:05:16 > 0:05:19and if that hadn't happened back in the 1990s,

0:05:19 > 0:05:23we wouldn't have had a Tate Modern today, so it's had an impact,

0:05:23 > 0:05:26it's definitely brought a lot of people to contemporary art.

0:05:26 > 0:05:28Now, this year, the rules have changed

0:05:28 > 0:05:30and the upper age limit restriction has been lifted

0:05:30 > 0:05:34so that artists of any age can now be in contention with each other.

0:05:34 > 0:05:37Now, in the first of our short films about this year's nominees,

0:05:37 > 0:05:40we meet Lubaina Himid and Hurvin Anderson,

0:05:40 > 0:05:43the two artists whose place on the shortlist

0:05:43 > 0:05:45was guaranteed because of this.

0:05:45 > 0:05:48Whilst 63-year-old Himid makes use of

0:05:48 > 0:05:51a wide array of media and material to explore her themes,

0:05:51 > 0:05:5552-year-old Anderson is that rare thing on the Turner shortlist -

0:05:55 > 0:05:57a true figurative painter.

0:05:57 > 0:06:00Will either go on to take the prize this week?

0:06:04 > 0:06:07My name is Lubaina Himid, I am a painter.

0:06:08 > 0:06:09I trained as a theatre designer

0:06:09 > 0:06:12and I have a sense of the drama of things.

0:06:14 > 0:06:17Really, at the heart of my practice

0:06:17 > 0:06:21is the desire for a relationship with audience.

0:06:22 > 0:06:25I'm incredibly aware of the Turner Prize, I always have been,

0:06:25 > 0:06:29but once I passed the age of 50, I certainly never thought about

0:06:29 > 0:06:32being in contention for it, so it was completely shocking.

0:06:35 > 0:06:37The Fashionable Marriage

0:06:37 > 0:06:40is a reworking of Hogarth's Marriage A-La-Mode.

0:06:40 > 0:06:43Instead of being the countess and her lover,

0:06:43 > 0:06:46we have Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

0:06:48 > 0:06:52I'm really interested in caricature, in cartoonists,

0:06:52 > 0:06:57in that ability to mock everybody.

0:06:57 > 0:07:00What I've learned from looking at the work of Gillray,

0:07:00 > 0:07:05Hogarth, Cruickshank, was that, although the work is cruel

0:07:05 > 0:07:09and everybody kind of gets rubbished,

0:07:09 > 0:07:10you get a history of people,

0:07:10 > 0:07:13you get a history of the presence of black people

0:07:13 > 0:07:15that you wouldn't necessarily have got

0:07:15 > 0:07:17in the kind of more dainty paintings of the day.

0:07:20 > 0:07:23The painting that I'm working on at the moment is part of a series,

0:07:23 > 0:07:24Le Rodeur.

0:07:24 > 0:07:28And in the whole series, I'm trying to capture

0:07:28 > 0:07:32the history of a story, of a reality,

0:07:32 > 0:07:36about a ship that sailed from the West Coast of Africa to Guadeloupe

0:07:36 > 0:07:38and, on the way,

0:07:38 > 0:07:43all the enslaved people that were captured on board went blind.

0:07:43 > 0:07:46And I want to build up a kind of relationship between them

0:07:46 > 0:07:51that talks about who they are, who they want to be,

0:07:51 > 0:07:54what's missing, what might be taken away from them

0:07:54 > 0:07:56or what has already been taken away from them.

0:07:59 > 0:08:02I certainly am trying to get inside the experience of things.

0:08:03 > 0:08:07It is about stretching your intellect,

0:08:07 > 0:08:11but it's also about remembering what you didn't know you knew.

0:08:20 > 0:08:22My name is Hurvin Anderson and I'm a painter.

0:08:26 > 0:08:29This is the drawing, the basis of some of the new paintings -

0:08:29 > 0:08:32Scrumping and Grafting.

0:08:34 > 0:08:36When I was younger, my brother, during the summer holidays,

0:08:36 > 0:08:38he would go for the day and he would come back

0:08:38 > 0:08:41and he'd have all these apples and pears and, you know,

0:08:41 > 0:08:45you'd ask you where had he been and, you know, "Just been scrumping."

0:08:47 > 0:08:51The interesting thing was, I think, for me, then when I went to Jamaica

0:08:51 > 0:08:55and I saw these kids just, you know, climbing trees.

0:08:55 > 0:09:00I just had this kind of tiny insight into how his life was

0:09:00 > 0:09:04when he was in Jamaica, so it was this kind of odd moment

0:09:04 > 0:09:10where these two worlds, for me, kind of came together.

0:09:10 > 0:09:12Essentially, there are two images,

0:09:12 > 0:09:15two photographs which have come together.

0:09:15 > 0:09:17There is something when I paint from photographs,

0:09:17 > 0:09:20where you feel like you get the point.

0:09:20 > 0:09:23Half the time, I feel like you are too busy measuring,

0:09:23 > 0:09:26there's too much things to consider, whereas when you have a photograph,

0:09:26 > 0:09:29half the job is done and you push things to one side.

0:09:29 > 0:09:31You are interested in something already

0:09:31 > 0:09:33and you just want to get on with it.

0:09:34 > 0:09:37What I find when you're making, especially a painting like this,

0:09:37 > 0:09:40in a way you are actually destroying things all the time,

0:09:40 > 0:09:43you are creating and making something new.

0:09:49 > 0:09:52I'm trying not to make it too personal,

0:09:52 > 0:09:55although there is that kind of first moment

0:09:55 > 0:09:58where it does come from maybe a personal moment,

0:09:58 > 0:10:00but it's about that...

0:10:00 > 0:10:03broader sentiment becomes more open and...

0:10:04 > 0:10:06Yeah, when lines blur.

0:10:13 > 0:10:16So, there we have a multimedia artist and a painter.

0:10:16 > 0:10:18What was your immediate response to the work?

0:10:18 > 0:10:20Hurvin Anderson's paintings, I liked.

0:10:20 > 0:10:23My only criticism would be that I didn't feel

0:10:23 > 0:10:26they were necessarily that new,

0:10:26 > 0:10:29in that they reminded me a bit of Peter Doig

0:10:29 > 0:10:32and a few other painters, but I...

0:10:33 > 0:10:38They were very direct, they were easy, they had a nice palette.

0:10:38 > 0:10:42I thought the barbershop ones worked particularly well.

0:10:42 > 0:10:45I liked it more when he sort of goes into abstraction.

0:10:45 > 0:10:50Lubaina's work, I...

0:10:50 > 0:10:53I thought probably the longest about her work.

0:10:53 > 0:10:55I didn't instantly love it,

0:10:55 > 0:10:59just aesthetically, it's not the kind of work that I love,

0:10:59 > 0:11:04but I thought the most successful work was the installation piece,

0:11:04 > 0:11:08The Fashionable Marriage, and I just... I thought it was a shame

0:11:08 > 0:11:10that the most successful work was made in 1986.

0:11:10 > 0:11:12I kind of struggled with that a little.

0:11:12 > 0:11:14Was that your feeling, Waldemar?

0:11:14 > 0:11:16Do you think that it should have been

0:11:16 > 0:11:19just the show for that particular year or...?

0:11:19 > 0:11:21Well, there has been a change of rules, hasn't there?

0:11:21 > 0:11:24They are now allowed... They've scrapped the age limit,

0:11:24 > 0:11:25so you don't have to be under 50 any more,

0:11:25 > 0:11:28you can be any age, and that has an impact, doesn't it?

0:11:28 > 0:11:30Because it means that... In this instance, you are sort of

0:11:30 > 0:11:33rewarding people for their whole career, aren't you, really,

0:11:33 > 0:11:35rather than what they've done this year?

0:11:35 > 0:11:40So there's old pictures and both Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid

0:11:40 > 0:11:43have got things from way back in their show,

0:11:43 > 0:11:45so it's a sort of mini retrospective,

0:11:45 > 0:11:47a kind of cultural MBE, you know.

0:11:47 > 0:11:50And, quite honestly, I think if you want to reward artists

0:11:50 > 0:11:52for being around a long time, give them an MBE,

0:11:52 > 0:11:54but don't necessarily give them the Turner Prize,

0:11:54 > 0:11:56which has always been there and successful

0:11:56 > 0:11:59because it's about new things that are happening now.

0:11:59 > 0:12:01You know, that is what has made it so pertinent.

0:12:01 > 0:12:03So I have issues with that, but having said that,

0:12:03 > 0:12:06I don't think that it's a particular problem this year because, actually,

0:12:06 > 0:12:08I think these are the two strongest artists in the show

0:12:08 > 0:12:10and Lubaina Himid's thing is really interesting

0:12:10 > 0:12:13all the way through and I actually like the smaller pieces.

0:12:13 > 0:12:16I love the Guardian front pages and the sports pages, where she has this

0:12:16 > 0:12:18rather sort of comic interplay

0:12:18 > 0:12:20between photographs of black sportsmen

0:12:20 > 0:12:22and she does a kind of predella to it

0:12:22 > 0:12:25where she makes little jokes about them, which she has painted on.

0:12:25 > 0:12:26And they are sort of funny.

0:12:26 > 0:12:30They are meant to be all about black identity, but are also very cheeky.

0:12:30 > 0:12:33I thought it was really good and I think Anderson's paintings

0:12:33 > 0:12:36are actually rather beautiful, but they are also understated,

0:12:36 > 0:12:37they are not noisy.

0:12:37 > 0:12:39The storyline of the barbershop is brilliant, isn't it?

0:12:39 > 0:12:41It's such a big cultural issue at the moment.

0:12:41 > 0:12:44There was that actress recently who appeared on Grazia,

0:12:44 > 0:12:47- complaining about her hair having been chopped off.- Lupita...

0:12:47 > 0:12:50And this is all about black people and hair, so that...

0:12:50 > 0:12:53that juxtaposition of the hair art

0:12:53 > 0:12:56and these sort of blooming, brilliant, tropical forests

0:12:56 > 0:12:59seems, to me, to be saying something about...

0:12:59 > 0:13:03about freedom and having stuff chopped off

0:13:03 > 0:13:06and something like that, but I think there is a problem ahead.

0:13:06 > 0:13:08You know, if you are going to give anybody

0:13:08 > 0:13:10a chance to appear in the Turner Prize,

0:13:10 > 0:13:14you are going to create a situation where Buggins' turn will turn up,

0:13:14 > 0:13:16as it used to be at the beginning when there wasn't an age limit.

0:13:16 > 0:13:18Anybody who has been around long enough can be in it.

0:13:18 > 0:13:21But it doesn't have to be like that, I don't think.

0:13:21 > 0:13:23I do think there are artists who are working...

0:13:23 > 0:13:27I mean, I can think of an artist right now who started...

0:13:27 > 0:13:29He went to college in his 50s and he is now making work

0:13:29 > 0:13:33and he just had his first exhibition in his 60s.

0:13:33 > 0:13:37So, I think there is new work being made by people in their over-50s,

0:13:37 > 0:13:39but I don't see why we have to...

0:13:39 > 0:13:42I mean, the Turner Prize states that it wants to provoke debate

0:13:42 > 0:13:44about what is new in contemporary art

0:13:44 > 0:13:47and then they can't show something from 1986 and say that,

0:13:47 > 0:13:50I think they would just have to update that maxim.

0:13:50 > 0:13:52And, in fact, the rule book says

0:13:52 > 0:13:55for outstanding exhibitions or projects of the past year.

0:13:55 > 0:13:57- In the last year.- Yes. I mean, it's...

0:13:57 > 0:14:00It's just potentially, you know, a dodgy situation.

0:14:00 > 0:14:03David, what's your opinion, briefly?

0:14:03 > 0:14:06It used to be a competition for brazen young artists.

0:14:06 > 0:14:08Now they've taken the age limit away.

0:14:08 > 0:14:10Yeah, I always had problems with that,

0:14:10 > 0:14:12I wondered why it was so ageist.

0:14:12 > 0:14:16But I think it's great, especially for women that get married

0:14:16 > 0:14:19and have children and have to look after their children,

0:14:19 > 0:14:22and then, when they are in their maybe late 40s,

0:14:22 > 0:14:25they want to start painting or doing things again,

0:14:25 > 0:14:27so I think it's very good for women in this place.

0:14:27 > 0:14:29I've got a daughter who is a very good painter,

0:14:29 > 0:14:33much better than I can paint, but she's lumbered with three kids.

0:14:33 > 0:14:36Or she loves three kids! So I think in that way it is good.

0:14:36 > 0:14:38As to the artists, I don't know,

0:14:38 > 0:14:40they are all right, but they are all right.

0:14:40 > 0:14:42I mean, they are really all right,

0:14:42 > 0:14:47but I think I expect a bit more from the Turner Prize, maybe.

0:14:47 > 0:14:50And now for our second pair of shortlisted artists,

0:14:50 > 0:14:53Rosalind Nashashibi and Andrea Buttner,

0:14:53 > 0:14:57whose works include video art, painting, printmaking and fabrics.

0:14:57 > 0:15:01While Buttner's prize show features pieces from across her practice,

0:15:01 > 0:15:04Nashashibi has chosen simply to screen two films

0:15:04 > 0:15:05for her exhibition in Hull.

0:15:09 > 0:15:11My name is Andrea Buttner.

0:15:11 > 0:15:13I am an artist.

0:15:15 > 0:15:18I'm showing my work in two rooms.

0:15:18 > 0:15:20I was nominated for two exhibitions

0:15:20 > 0:15:22that are quite different from each other.

0:15:24 > 0:15:29One is an exhibition that I borrowed from a peace group

0:15:29 > 0:15:34in East Berlin that was founded in the 1980s.

0:15:36 > 0:15:38And then they will see etchings

0:15:38 > 0:15:41made from traces of Google searches on the iPhones.

0:15:43 > 0:15:47I was thinking of these traces on the touch-screen

0:15:47 > 0:15:50as a sad kind of painting that we all do all time.

0:15:50 > 0:15:53It's a kind of invisible painting practice.

0:15:55 > 0:16:00I think the subject of the hand is very important in these works.

0:16:00 > 0:16:06I show them in relation to other works where hands are depicted.

0:16:09 > 0:16:11There is a series of nine woodcuts

0:16:11 > 0:16:15showing varied beggars with stretched-out hands.

0:16:17 > 0:16:21There are posters showing material that is sourced

0:16:21 > 0:16:23at the photography collection of the Warburg Institute,

0:16:23 > 0:16:25showing beggars.

0:16:25 > 0:16:29I've been working on the subject of poverty for many years,

0:16:29 > 0:16:32like I think it came from my interest in shame.

0:16:33 > 0:16:36Thinking about shame is so interesting within art,

0:16:36 > 0:16:41because it teaches us about conventions that we blindly accept.

0:16:49 > 0:16:54My name is Rosalind Nashashibi and I am an artist, making films.

0:16:57 > 0:17:02The two films that I'm showing are the ones which I was nominated for.

0:17:02 > 0:17:04With the film Vivian's Garden,

0:17:04 > 0:17:07it is about Vivian Suter and Elisabeth Wild,

0:17:07 > 0:17:10these two artists, mother and daughter,

0:17:10 > 0:17:12and their situation in Panajachel,

0:17:12 > 0:17:14which is a small town in Guatemala.

0:17:17 > 0:17:21Vivian is in her 60s and her mother is in her 90s.

0:17:21 > 0:17:24Their home is really a refuge,

0:17:24 > 0:17:28it's really a very healing place to be, actually, in their garden.

0:17:28 > 0:17:31But on the other hand, it's a very dangerous place.

0:17:31 > 0:17:34There is a lot of crime, there's lawlessness

0:17:34 > 0:17:36and they are in a vulnerable position,

0:17:36 > 0:17:40so it's a complex situation, it's not just a simple...

0:17:41 > 0:17:44..a morally simple situation, let's say.

0:17:45 > 0:17:49Electrical Gaza is a film I made in Gaza.

0:17:49 > 0:17:54I was asked by the Imperial War Museum, initially, in 2010,

0:17:54 > 0:17:58to make a piece of work about Gaza.

0:17:59 > 0:18:03It's so difficult to cross that border and then, once you're in,

0:18:03 > 0:18:06you are aware that you are in this completely sealed area

0:18:06 > 0:18:08on the one hand, because it's under siege,

0:18:08 > 0:18:10but on the other hand, completely porous,

0:18:10 > 0:18:14because the Israelis were flying over at all times,

0:18:14 > 0:18:16they were controlling the borders

0:18:16 > 0:18:19and they could enter, really, at whim.

0:18:19 > 0:18:25So I began to see that siege of Gaza,

0:18:25 > 0:18:27or to find a sort of metaphor, I guess,

0:18:27 > 0:18:31in the idea of a place being under enchantment.

0:18:31 > 0:18:36And, when I say that, I don't mean that in any fairy-tale aspect.

0:18:36 > 0:18:38What I mean is really under a spell.

0:18:41 > 0:18:45I went from animation to live footage in order to say,

0:18:45 > 0:18:48you think that this is a fantasy situation,

0:18:48 > 0:18:52but actually, it is like that, so it's not quite what it seems.

0:18:55 > 0:19:01What I tried to do was really to show to the viewer of the film

0:19:01 > 0:19:04what it felt like inside me to be there.

0:19:04 > 0:19:07Polly, what did you make of the films?

0:19:07 > 0:19:09Vivian's Garden really grew on me, actually.

0:19:09 > 0:19:10I started to find it quite moving.

0:19:10 > 0:19:12Electrical Gaza, I...

0:19:12 > 0:19:16I think I just expected a little bit more from it, I was sort of...

0:19:16 > 0:19:19I understand she was interrupted in the middle of filming it,

0:19:19 > 0:19:21so she had to cut it short, and I wanted to see

0:19:21 > 0:19:23the film she would have made if she hadn't been interrupted,

0:19:23 > 0:19:26because I think, knowing that she was half-Palestinian,

0:19:26 > 0:19:30I was expecting little bit more intimacy, maybe, with the subject.

0:19:30 > 0:19:31And I...

0:19:31 > 0:19:34I couldn't help thinking that the footage that she'd got,

0:19:34 > 0:19:37there were some beautiful shots, but it was quite ordinary, some of it.

0:19:37 > 0:19:41I could sort of imagine many people with a camera out there

0:19:41 > 0:19:42getting those shots.

0:19:42 > 0:19:44I thought they were really, really dreary.

0:19:44 > 0:19:48And also totally irrelevant to the Turner Prize situation.

0:19:48 > 0:19:51I mean, you've got one film set in Guatemala,

0:19:51 > 0:19:52another in the Gaza Strip.

0:19:52 > 0:19:55The Guatemala film, it was like a sort of holiday film.

0:19:55 > 0:19:59You know, I don't understand what was being said about it

0:19:59 > 0:20:02that is in any way sort of pertinent, really,

0:20:02 > 0:20:03and the poetry was lost on me.

0:20:03 > 0:20:07I think it was a film about the encroachment of a natural situation,

0:20:07 > 0:20:09so, you know, the Guatemalan jungle,

0:20:09 > 0:20:11as it were, that they are trying to tame in their garden

0:20:11 > 0:20:13is coming in on these two ladies

0:20:13 > 0:20:16who are living in this sort of vulnerable house

0:20:16 > 0:20:18in the middle of the garden, so I sort of get that,

0:20:18 > 0:20:23but I just found it deeply annoying and badly made.

0:20:23 > 0:20:26You know, there are no great shots in it, the editing was clunky,

0:20:26 > 0:20:30the music was clunky, the point of it was clunky,

0:20:30 > 0:20:31the whole thing was clunky.

0:20:31 > 0:20:33See, I got engrossed in the music

0:20:33 > 0:20:35and maybe that was a distraction, perhaps, I'm not sure.

0:20:35 > 0:20:38Maybe it was from boredom.

0:20:38 > 0:20:41There was one scene, there was one episode in the middle

0:20:41 > 0:20:43where she was going to sleep

0:20:43 > 0:20:44and someone working in the garden

0:20:44 > 0:20:46was putting these leaves over the top,

0:20:46 > 0:20:48which I thought was quite pretty,

0:20:48 > 0:20:50and some music came in then and there were some dogs playing,

0:20:50 > 0:20:52a puppy playing with its mother,

0:20:52 > 0:20:54and I felt like there was something quite poetic

0:20:54 > 0:20:56about life and death going on there.

0:20:56 > 0:20:59David, did you feel like you were watching a crafted documentary

0:20:59 > 0:21:01- or did you feel it was art? - No, not very crafted, no.

0:21:01 > 0:21:06I used to make documentaries, not that that means anything.

0:21:06 > 0:21:09But it's like a bad news report to me.

0:21:09 > 0:21:13Now, I am interested to know what you think of Andrea Buttner.

0:21:13 > 0:21:16The borrowing of the Simone Weil piece, you know,

0:21:16 > 0:21:19that's just a typical bit of what conceptual art gets up to.

0:21:19 > 0:21:20"It's conceptual art, innit?"

0:21:20 > 0:21:23So you go and borrow an entire exhibition and transport it.

0:21:23 > 0:21:26The best thing about her display was the photography

0:21:26 > 0:21:28in that particular scene,

0:21:28 > 0:21:30because you had Andre Kertesz, you had Ansel Adams.

0:21:30 > 0:21:32Finally, you had some great art,

0:21:32 > 0:21:35just nothing to do with Andrea Buttner.

0:21:35 > 0:21:37So, does it matter that it is not her work?

0:21:37 > 0:21:40- I don't think it does.- To me, it doesn't matter particularly,

0:21:40 > 0:21:42because, you know, I love Duchamp's readymades,

0:21:42 > 0:21:45they are brilliant. But they are brilliant because they bring

0:21:45 > 0:21:47something to the party - a strangeness.

0:21:47 > 0:21:51He saw something in the real world, took it up, put it on a pedestal

0:21:51 > 0:21:52and suddenly we can see that it's got

0:21:52 > 0:21:54some weird, sculptural power to it.

0:21:54 > 0:21:56I beat his wife once at chess,

0:21:56 > 0:21:58which was quite an achievement!

0:22:00 > 0:22:03What I didn't like about it was that it had that sort of air of

0:22:03 > 0:22:06a library foyer about it or some kind of trades show,

0:22:06 > 0:22:10you know, temporary dullness that didn't really take me anywhere.

0:22:10 > 0:22:13She talked about poverty by doing those drawings

0:22:13 > 0:22:17and it doesn't make you want to go out and help people,

0:22:17 > 0:22:18or it doesn't help the people.

0:22:18 > 0:22:21I mean, that's just someone expressing themselves.

0:22:21 > 0:22:24Is it more political than, say, last year, for example?

0:22:24 > 0:22:28Yeah, I think it was a sort of anti-Brexit show

0:22:28 > 0:22:31and it was definitely a response to last year.

0:22:31 > 0:22:32I loved last year's one,

0:22:32 > 0:22:35there was a lot more tangible work in there for me.

0:22:35 > 0:22:37I just don't think it's going to be

0:22:37 > 0:22:39a very memorable Turner prize, really.

0:22:39 > 0:22:40There were some nice works in there,

0:22:40 > 0:22:43but it was quite sort of safe and quite art-worldy.

0:22:43 > 0:22:45You've fallen in and out of love with the Turner Prize.

0:22:45 > 0:22:46Are you in love this year,

0:22:46 > 0:22:49or are you turning your back and going for a drink?

0:22:49 > 0:22:51I think it's a very dreary show, all in all.

0:22:51 > 0:22:54It doesn't have much wow factor to it.

0:22:54 > 0:22:57There is just no sense that this is some kind of real reflection

0:22:57 > 0:23:00of what has happened in Britain this year, or very little sense of that.

0:23:00 > 0:23:03The only person that stands out and is properly here

0:23:03 > 0:23:07and is by far the most interesting artist in the show is Lubaina Himid,

0:23:07 > 0:23:10who has had powerful exhibitions in Britain this year,

0:23:10 > 0:23:14who is an exceptional artist and who should win easily.

0:23:14 > 0:23:16If she doesn't, it tells you everything you need to know

0:23:16 > 0:23:19about how wrong contemporary art can be in Britain.

0:23:19 > 0:23:22The public's favourite seems to be Anderson's work,

0:23:22 > 0:23:26the critics' favourite seems to be Lubaina's work.

0:23:26 > 0:23:29It's not a vintage year for you by any measure, David,

0:23:29 > 0:23:31but who would you give the prize to next week?

0:23:31 > 0:23:34Ask the audience, because they are going to be the judges in the end.

0:23:34 > 0:23:35Because, in the end, art needs an audience

0:23:35 > 0:23:38and if it hasn't got an audience, there's nobody...

0:23:38 > 0:23:41I mean, it doesn't matter what he says or what she says or what I say,

0:23:41 > 0:23:42it's the audience that...

0:23:42 > 0:23:45They are part of you doing your work.

0:23:45 > 0:23:48- Polly?- I agree. I think she will win.

0:23:48 > 0:23:49I would give it to Hurvin Anderson.

0:23:49 > 0:23:52I'll put my 10p on Lubaina too, I think.

0:23:52 > 0:23:55The winner of the Turner Prize will be announced at a ceremony

0:23:55 > 0:23:59on 5th December, broadcast live on the BBC News Channel

0:23:59 > 0:24:01and BBC World News at 9.30pm

0:24:01 > 0:24:04and then shown on BBC Four later that evening.

0:24:04 > 0:24:08And you can see the exhibition at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull

0:24:08 > 0:24:12until 7th January next year. Thank you to my guests -

0:24:12 > 0:24:15David Bailey, Polly Morgan and Waldemar Januszczak.

0:24:18 > 0:24:21Saving our live studio music until last,

0:24:21 > 0:24:25let me introduce you to artist and art provocateur Martin Creed,

0:24:25 > 0:24:29who was a Turner Prize winner at Tate Britain in 2001,

0:24:29 > 0:24:33with Work No. 227, The Lights Going On And Off.

0:24:33 > 0:24:35So, Martin, what was it like for you to win that prize?

0:24:35 > 0:24:37Er, I don't know.

0:24:37 > 0:24:39Are you still overwhelmed by it?

0:24:39 > 0:24:40Aye. Well, I don't know,

0:24:40 > 0:24:45because I think winning prizes can give you a false idea about life,

0:24:45 > 0:24:48because I think life is more about losing

0:24:48 > 0:24:52than it is about winning because, you know, every moment is lost.

0:24:52 > 0:24:55So, life is like a process of losing things

0:24:55 > 0:24:59and I feel like it's hard, it's hard to get used to that,

0:24:59 > 0:25:02so if you win something, it can give you a kind of false idea

0:25:02 > 0:25:05about kind of being...

0:25:05 > 0:25:07about things being OK.

0:25:07 > 0:25:12That's it for this evening's Front Row Turner Prize special.

0:25:12 > 0:25:13If you want information and details

0:25:13 > 0:25:15about anything we've been talking about,

0:25:15 > 0:25:18do head to our website and, of course,

0:25:18 > 0:25:20there's arts news and reviews every night

0:25:20 > 0:25:24on Radio 4's Front Row at 7.15.

0:25:24 > 0:25:27We'll be back next year with a new series of Front Row.

0:25:27 > 0:25:30I leave you with Martin Creed and You're The One For Me.

0:25:30 > 0:25:32Goodnight.

0:25:42 > 0:25:47# I'm the one for you

0:25:47 > 0:25:49# I'm your two

0:25:51 > 0:25:56# You're the one for me

0:25:56 > 0:25:58# You're my three

0:26:01 > 0:26:08# We make one, two, three, four, five

0:26:10 > 0:26:12# You make me laugh

0:26:14 > 0:26:16# You make me cry

0:26:19 > 0:26:21# You make me try

0:26:23 > 0:26:26# You make me sigh

0:26:28 > 0:26:30# You make me lie

0:26:33 > 0:26:35# You make me buy

0:26:37 > 0:26:40# You're my sign

0:26:42 > 0:26:45# And you're my time

0:26:47 > 0:26:50# You're my rhyme

0:26:51 > 0:26:54# You're my nine

0:26:57 > 0:26:59# One, two

0:27:00 > 0:27:04# Three, four, five, six

0:27:04 > 0:27:06# Seven, eight

0:27:06 > 0:27:08# Nine

0:27:14 > 0:27:16# You make me talk

0:27:18 > 0:27:20# You make me think

0:27:23 > 0:27:26# You make me smoke

0:27:28 > 0:27:30# You make me drink

0:27:32 > 0:27:35# You're like depth

0:27:37 > 0:27:39# You're like height

0:27:41 > 0:27:44# You're like light

0:27:46 > 0:27:48# You're like sight

0:27:51 > 0:27:53# You help me see

0:27:55 > 0:27:58# You make me free

0:28:00 > 0:28:02# You let me be

0:28:04 > 0:28:07# You make me me

0:28:09 > 0:28:14# I'm the one for you

0:28:14 > 0:28:16# I'm your two

0:28:18 > 0:28:23# You're the one for me

0:28:23 > 0:28:26# You're my three

0:28:28 > 0:28:35# I love the way you do things

0:28:37 > 0:28:44# And I love the way you don't. #

0:28:50 > 0:28:53APPLAUSE