Turner Prize 2024
Tate Britain, Sep/24 – Feb/25
The Turner Prize, Britain’s most anticipated art award, sets the tone for contemporary debates concerning the state of the visual arts in the country. Each year, a panel of writers and critics nominates four artists whose exhibitions stand out. This year, the award went to Jasleen Kaur. The other nominees were Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, and Delaine Le Bas. All four artists have been given space at Tate Britain to recreate their exhibitions. Each offers a distinct experience, yet together they unify around themes of identity and collective memory, explored through personal and cultural histories.
Abad’s blocks of marble, books, jewellery, swords, among other historical artefacts, seduce our attention, drawing us into their layered and contentious stories. Protected on their elevated plinths and stands, displayed reverentially, the objects bear traces of Britain’s colonial and imperial past. His practice starts in museums and archives, where he uncovers overlooked objects and brings them into the light to gain visibility and expose the way many museums collect and categorise the artefacts they hold. Along the walls, meticulous drawings trace the form of these objects, capturing their tactility and intimacy. Abad also threads his personal history into the work, such that his exhibition becomes a space where history and family converge, and where viewers reconsider the stories objects carry.
In contrast to Abad’s carefully staged objects, Jasleen Kaur’s are casually arranged, which creates a sense of immediacy. While Abad explores how cultural and individual histories intersect, Kaur investigates how personal objects connect with broader socio-political structures. Her installation greets us with the sound of her singing devotional music, as a way of finding hope and understanding how to live now. Through objects drawn from her Scottish heritage she introduces identity markers that bridge the everyday and the symbolic. A fake Axminster carpet, worship bells, and a vintage Ford Escort draped in a four-metre crocheted doily, sit alongside cassettes, family photographs, a Nike tracksuit, and even “fake” vomit. These ephemera reflect narratives of assimilation, class, and labour, grounding the personal within wider economic frameworks.
Delaine Le Bas’s installation transforms the gallery into a labyrinth of corridors and private spaces, draped in fabric and filled with paintings, collages, costumes, soundscapes, text, and performances featuring stylised human figures, monsters, dragonflies, flowers, and horses. The atmosphere suggests the spontaneity of child’s play, with paint applied in hurried strokes, drips, and splashes. The journey unfolds in three stages: “Chaos,” “Reflection,” and “Ascension.” Drawing on literature, mythology, symbolism, and personal memory, Le Bas creates a narrative that culminates in the words “Know Thyself” inscribed on the wall – a reference to Pythia’s call for introspection and self-awareness.
The final room, which showcases the work of Claudette Johnson, offers a stark contrast to the preceding rooms in presentation, though the subject matter shares a thematic thread. Johnson’s large-scale portraits of Black subjects in informal, everyday poses stand as a powerful counterpoint to the predominance of white figures in mainstream art. Through her drawings and paintings, Johnson claims space for Black people, presenting her subjects as both ordinary and dignified. These are real individuals, portrayed with a quiet confidence that asserts their rightful place on the gallery walls.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Turner Prize, which retains its ability to stir public debate and controversy. Visual art’s relevance and power to challenge and provoke are brought back to the public mind on an annual basis.
Ana Teles for London Art Walk
December 2024