The Ceremony Turner Prize

Hello and welcome to the 2017

Turner Prize award ceremony,

brought to you live from Hull,

the 2017 City of Culture.

In a few minutes' time,

the biggest prize in British Art

will be awarded.

I'm Jane Hill, here at

the magnificent setting

for the ceremony, Hull Minster.

The Turner Prize is of course being

exhibited here in Hull because this

is the City of Culture for 2017.

And I'm Rebecca Jones.

I'm at the Ferens Gallery in Hull,

where the four nominated artists

are exhibiting their work.

I'll be giving you your own private

view in just a few minutes' time.

More from Rebecca to come. Taking us

through the next half-hour of our

special coverage is Sarah Munro, the

director of the Baltic in Gateshead

and Alistair Hudson, soon to be

installed as the new director of the

Manchester Art Gallery and the

Whitworth. Welcome to both of you. A

quick thought from each of you on

this year's short list and what it

has that EU?

It is a very considered

short list, one where all the

artists show an element of

handicraft and thoughtfulness and

humanity. Personally, I would like

to see more politics and a bit more

over talking about what is going on

in the world, which is there, but

could be raised up a bit more.

Some

people would say that is that quite

strongly. Sarah, your thoughts?

Again, it is a very considered short

list. It absolutely represents what

the British art scene is about just

now, that sense of practices coming

across different art forms,

different skills, ideas, knowledge,

but also the way that artists are

crossing borders. There is a real

diversity with where people were

born and grew up. It reflects where

we are and where we are working. I

like that quite politics that is

within a lot of the work.

Lots to

discuss. We will talk more in a

moment. Let's hear more about the

work of two of the four short listed

artists this year exhibiting at the

Ferens Art Gallery not far from

here. Let's go to Rebecca Jones.

In

my humble opinion, this year's

Turner Prize is almost as much about

politics and the world we live in

today as it is about art, and I

think if you look at the work of

Andrea Buttner here, you will see

what I mean. She is interested in

poverty, so she has these eight

giant woodcuts of wooded beggars

with outstretched, beseeching arms.

This entire wall is covered in

high-vis jacket material and on it,

what appear to be three large,

abstract pictures. But here, this is

an enlarged fingerprint that has

been left smeared on a smartphone

screen. To help makes into for this,

am joined by one of the co-curators

of the exhibition this year, George

Vaizey. Two very different sorts of

works. What is the link here?

Andrea

Buttner is interested in the value.

We can see with these etchings, she

takes everyday marks from iPhone,

scaled up and make them beautiful,

focusing our attention on things we

wouldn't look at.

As well as wanting

us to look across at her work,

Andrea Buttner also wants us to look

down at it, so we have this piece of

blue silk fabric which she has laid

out on a low table. Why is that?

It

is handmade silk made by Benedictine

nuns, and we are looking down at it

because we are enacting the

representation of the beggar. So we

are bowing down and there is a sense

of humility and modesty too much of

her work.

Thank you. I have a

surprise for you now, especially for

all of you who associate the Turner

Prize with unmade beds and pickled

cows, because I am going to show you

some paintings. They are the work of

Hurvin Anderson. Do not adjust your

set, because his landscapes are

inspired by no less than

comfortable. Look at these lush,

verdant forests. You can see the

figure of a boy in the branches.

Hurvin Anderson is the only man on

the short list. His parents are from

Jamaica and he draws on his

Caribbean heritage in his work as

well as his own life growing up in

Birmingham. This picture is called

Izzy Tokyo to be black it is set in

a barbershop -- it is called Izzy

Tokyo to be black -- is it okayed to

be black. You can see black figures

like Martin Luther king and Muhammad

Ali. Sacha Craddock joins me. We

have two distinct works, the

barbershop and the landscapes. What

is his prime concern?

As a painter,

his concern is to paint what

painters have headed for a long

time, the interior or the exterior.

We deal with a barbershop and there

are portraits of famous people.

Here, we get less of a

representation of famous people and

here we get the space emptied out.

So there is not necessarily

narrative here, but more a sense of

creating a place. The snippets that

have been left are the only kind of

story. The rest is reflective glass

which is more abstract, a real

stillness. But if we move over to

the landscape, here we have two, one

more tropical. In the centre of the

painting, you do not have someone

showing off and making something

gorgeous. In a way, it is dull. But

what you do have is involvement from

the outside going in with this

railway track leading through a

loser is space. -- loser in space.

Perhaps this is an amalgamation of

many places for Anderson, places he

might know or imagine. Not somewhere

real, but an amalgamation, something

to take us somewhere else.

Sacha

Craddock, more from you later. So

those are the first two artists

short listed for the Turner Prize,

Hurvin Anderson and Andrea Buttner.

Thanks, Rebecca. Let's mull over

some of that with Sarah and

Alistair. Sarah, I would like to

pick up on what the Turner Prize is

doing for Hull. In your previous

role, you were instrumental in

getting the Turner Prize to Glasgow.

What does it do for a city when you

get this prize out of London and to

different audiences?

It means a huge

amount. In Glasgow, we could have

worked with any of the four artists

that were short listed, but that way

of working and collaborating with

Tate and the brand, the visibility

enables it to have this resonance

that goes out to huge numbers of

people who would not normally

consider coming into a gallery or an

art institution. So it democratises

the sense that they can go in and

have an opinion. For me, one of the

most important thing is that

diversity of the audience. They are

encouraged to have different

opinions. They can like things or

disagree with things. It gives the

centrestage to thinking about

artists and their role in society

and culture.

Alistair, the head of

Hull 2017 described this as a

serious short list for serious

times. So I am struck that you felt

it was not political enough. But do

you think that this is a more

serious year?

Certainly, all the

artists on the short list are

considering politics and social

concerns. But they are operating

within the canon of the art world or

a world, and there are many art

world and many ways of working. It

is bizarre to me in some ways that

the artists who are describing the

issues of the world are not actively

buying to make things happen and

change things. But they are all

making an attempt in one way or

another.

Very interesting. Alistair

and Sarah, thank you. Let's hear

more about the other two short

listed artists. Back to Rebecca.

The

Turner Prize may have come to Hull

this year, but that inside this

specially constructed cinema and you

are immediately transported to Gaza.

This film is the work of Rosalind

Nashashibi. At the age of 44, she's

the youngest artist on the short

list this year. She was born in

Croydon, but her father is

Palestinian. Her film gives us a

glimpse into daily life in Gaza. So

we see people eating, singing,

children playing the streets. And

she merges documentary material that

she has shot with stage scenarios.

The curator George Vasey is back

with me. Why did Rosalind Nashashibi

want to make a film set in Gaza?

She

was invited by the Imperial War

Museum a few years ago to go to

Gaza. She made a film that wanted to

look at the effects of the political

situation on the people of Gaza.

Every so often, the film looks into

animation, why?

She had to leave

early because the Israeli

bombardment and animation allowed

her to finish the film, but also

articulate the sense of heightened

reality that she encountered.

Thank

you for your time. This is one of

two film is being exhibited by

Rosalind Nashashibi. The other is

set in Guatemala and explores the

relationship between a mother and

daughter who live in a big house

with a large, overgrown garden. And

they are both artists, and receive

the daughter dragging the large

canvases through the foliage. I

suppose both films taken together

give us an insight into two very

different parts of the world. Let me

show you the work of the oldest

artist on the short list, Lubaina

Hamid. She was born in Zanzibar, but

now lives and works in Preston. Her

chief preoccupation as an artist is

black identity and the

representation of the people in art.

Look at this dinner service, which

she has painted over to tell the

story of the abolition of slavery.

Here, the centrepiece of her

exhibition is this large, theatrical

stage set, peopled by these large

caricatures. You can see Margaret

Thatcher flirting with Ronald

Reagan. And the whole scene is being

survey by this imposing black

figure. The curator Sacha Craddock

is back with me. Lubaina Hamid is a

very political artist. Talk us

through what she is trying to say

and do here?

She is a truly

political artist. Here, she is

making a two-dimensional painting by

Hogarth, Marriage a la Mode, which

is a send-up of 18th-century court

life, into a three-dimensional

stage. This was made in 1986, and as

you said, we have all these

different characters. We have a

concentration of courtly folly of

people of influence at any one time.

So we have all these different

things. It is painted in a

perfunctory way. It is not as though

Lubaina Hamid wants to say this is

valuable art, it is more that she

wants to say something quickly. The

most important thing is the fact

that people are changing place

within the painting. So instead of

going from the black people being

servants, at the front we have this

amazing young woman who looks as if

she has changed circumstances. She

is reading philosophy and finding

out about her origin. She is

representing what Lubaina Hamid

wanted to do, which is to represent

young black women artists like

herself at the time.

So there you

have it, and Lubaina Hamid. Before

that, Rosalind Nashashibi. You have

now seen the work of all four

artists short listed for the prize.

The question is, who will win?

And

that question will be answered in

the next few minutes. We are

building up to the exciting part of

the evening. The award will be

announced by Goldie. Let's hear

first from Maria Balshaw, the

director of Tate.

Ladies and

gentlemen, I am Maria Balshaw,

director of Tate. In a moment, I

will be introducing our special

guest, Goldie MBE, to reduce the

winner of this year's Turner Prize

-- to introduce the winner. A star

musician and a huge advocate of

British creativity, Goldie is also a

visual artist in his own right and a

massive champion of the role that

artists play in the world. At Tate,

our mission is to promote public

understanding and enjoyment of

British modern and contemporary art.

We want as many people as possible

all around the UK to have

opportunities to see and engage with

the greatest art of today. That's

why every other year, the Turner

Prize is staged in a different city

outside of London. Tonight, we are

in the gorgeous Hull Minster,

celebrating the Turner Prize, which

has been hosted by Hull as their

year as UK City of Culture. Huge

congratulations and thanks are due

to the team at Hull 2017, the Ferens

Art Gallery and Hull City council

for staging the exhibition, which

has engaged and inspired people of

all ages across the city and those

visiting the capital of culture.

There have been 90,000 visitors, we

have heard, already to the

exhibition. We at Tate are hugely

proud of being part of making art

part of the daily life of this fine

city and through this, shifting

perceptions about Hull now and for

the future. To everyone watching at

home, you have only until the 7th of

January to see the exhibition here

at the Ferens Art Gallery. So come

if you haven't already. I would like

to offer my sincere congratulations

to our four nominated artists,

Hurvin Anderson, Andrea Buttner,

Lubaina Hamid and Rosalind

Nashashibi. I would also like to

thank our chair of our jury, Alex

Farquharson, director at Tate

Britain, and his jury colleagues.

This year, we opened the prize up to

artists of all ages, recognising

that artistic breakthrough and the

most exciting work made in any year

can happen at any point in an

artistic career. The Turner Prize

celebrates the best of British

contemporary art in all its

diversity and variety. This year's

show is no exception, with painting,

video, sculpture, ceramic,

installation and print all

featuring. I think everyone that has

and will visit will find something

that they love, something that

challenges them and something which

makes them see the world in a

different way. As Hull said when we

opened the Turner Prize here,

whatever you think, you are right.

It now gives me great pleasure to

introduce Goldie to announce,

finally, the winner of the Turner

Prize 2017.

APPLAUSE.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,

boys and girls. I'm really pleased

to be here in Hull, because I was

here 20 years ago, partying and

raving in dirty underground clubs.

And it's crazy to see how this city

has developed. And especially in a

year where you guys have been given

this cultural city award and great

things have been happening here ever

since. For someone like myself who

is always surrounding myself in art,

I have always had mentors who are

artists that gave me guidance. I was

really chuffed when I was asked to

come here and be at the ceremony and

to announce this year's winner of

that Turner Prize. I have been at

the Ferens Art Gallery all

afternoon, looking at each of the

artists' work thoroughly. It is one

of those things when you are looking

at an artist's work, I get inspired.

And I think all of you who have been

there and people who will be

visiting will be just as inspired.

It's a strong line-up. The work is

very diverse. I think you are all

winners, in my eyes. Art and artists

can offer a mirror of society. It

can show us how fragile we are and

how strong we are also. And there is

no right or wrong, it's about the

art. It is subjective and all of

that. With all the confrontation we

are having in the world right now

and the pressure of society, it's

good that this country is digging

deep and the artists are going

further to reflect on their social

views and political concerns in a

way which is really upfront. We need

more art to do that, to challenge

perceptions. I have my own

favourites, we all do. And you are

about to find out who is this year's

Turner Prize winner. So... The

winner of this year's Turner Prize

is Lubaina Hamid!

Good evening. Thank you, panel.

First of all, that the people who

have stopped me in the streets of

Preston and Hull to wish me luck,

thank you, it worked. Thank you to

the teams at the harbour in

Blackpool and Belmont and Longbridge

for taking such care. Thanks of

course to the university of central

Lancashire for giving me enough rope

to develop the making history is

visible project. I know dozens of

strong, clever artists and curators,

mostly women, and have talked to one

or other of them everyday. I them

dearly. Thank you to Matt Burchill

for being amazing artists and clever

assistance and the kindest men I

have ever known. Thank you to the

Hollybush gardens gallery for giving

me both time and space. To the art

and cultural historians who cared

enough to write essays about my work

for decades, thank you. You gave me

sustenance in the wilderness years.

Thank you to Susan for never

allowing me to give up or throw away

my work and to Patricia for helping

us both. Thanks to my mother, for

letting me do what I wanted as a

teenager as long as I came home by

10pm. I quickly learned to squeeze

as much as possible in by 9.55.

Thank you to Richard bliss for

helping me carry on. Finally, thank

you to artist and photographer

Ingrid pollard for being a dear,

sweet friend, even though I love to

show off and dance into the early

hours. Thank you.

Lubaina Hamid, congratulations,

winner of the Turner Prize 2017. You

are live on BBC News. What does this

mean?

It's amazing. It's a complete

shock to me. I didn't predict it.

You sounded very composed. I'm not

sure I believe you are shocked.

I am

shocked.

I am very struck that you

thanked, as you put it, those who

supported you in what you called

wilderness years. I was talking to

someone involved in the prize

earlier today who said he felt it

was time to recognise people who had

been overlooked for a long time. Is

that how this feels to you?

Well, I

was overlooked by critics and press,

but I was never overlooked by art

historians or curators or other

artists. So it's like being in the

public eye, yes but people have

helped me develop my work and I was

never overlooked.

You tell stories

and you talk about needing to tell

stories that aren't told enough or

not ever told. That is a key theme

of your work. I am struck by that

because it seems that you have been

exploring that seem very fruitfully

for decades. Is this the art

establishment only just catching up

with you?

Some of the art

establishment are catching up, yes.

The time is sometimes right for

something. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. And going forward, does this

affect your work? You are a

Professor of contemporary art as

well. Does it affect what you say to

your students?

They might take more

notice of me, I guess, when I walk

in a room! It is like when people

win the lottery, they say it won't

make any difference. It will not

make a difference to the kind of

work I make, but it will make a

difference to the people who have

supported me all these years. It

sounds like a cliche, but I have won

it for them.

Lubaina Hamid,

congratulations. Turner Prize winner

of 2017. I will let you get back to

your friends and family. Enjoy your

celebrations. So that is Lubaina

Hamid, the winner of the Turner

Prize 2017. Ceremony row and

Alistair Hudson were talking to me

earlier. -- Sarah Munro and Alistair

Hudson. It seems invidious to ask

whether that was the right choice,

but I have to.

We are delighted. We

are doing a show, and we are

absolutely thrilled.

This is an

artist whose work, let's be honest,

a group of 1980s black artists in

Britain, their story was not told

and it was not possible in that era.

Now in this year, with shows around

Britain where it is now current,

this question around the 80s and

where we have got to its hugely

current.

But I am struck by that in

the sense that there will be people

watching this who say, isn't the

Turner Prize meant to be about work

in the previous year? Is this now

about looking further back?

It is

about this year now. Lubaina has

shown her work across Britain in the

'80s black art show in

Middlesbrough. She has had a solo

show. Only this year as she had

gallery representation. This is a

black artist in Britain who has been

working for over 30 years who has

only just had gallery

representation. It is a significant

moment and one in which a lot of

balances have been redressed. So

this is about this year now, not 30

years ago.

Does that then influenced

artists working in Britain today,

and what does it do for the viewing

public, those of us who want to see

this work?

Artists make work over a

long time and a small number of

those rights and get that moment.

This is about institutions taking

responsibility and being much more

aware of those who are in and out,

about exclusion and inclusion. She

is also making great work now. All

will be exciting for Lubaina now is

to be, in a way, Floyd, and moving

onto the next -- she is freed. I'm

excited to see where this goes for

her now.

A very exciting year.

Alistair and Sarah, lovely that you

could be with us for our special

coverage of the Turner Prize 2017.

You can see the work of Lubaina

Hamid and all the short listed

artists, of course, at the Ferens

Art Gallery here in Hull. It is

available to see until the 7th of

January. We leave you on our special

coverage with the work of this

year's winner, Lubaina Hamid.