Glasgow School of Art wins as another ex-student is nominated for Turner Prize
● Video artist the latest GSA alumna to be on shortlist
It is the contemporary art prize that has become synonymous with one Scottish institution in particular.
And Charlotte Prodger yesterday became the latest Glasgow School of Art alumna to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize.
She was nominated for two video works, including one which was shot on an iphone and named Bridgit after the Neolithic deity. The other traces a history of recent video formats as well as the artist’s personal history.
Prodger’s films often build a complex narrative exploring relationships between queer bodies, landscape, language, technology and time.
The 44-year-old studied at Goldsmiths college in London before completing a Masters at Glasgow School of Art, which boasts five previous Turner Prize winners among its famous former pupils.
Judges praised Prodger – who is based in Glasgow – for “the nuanced way in which she deals with identity politics, particularly from a queer perspective”.
Also shortlisted for the 2018 Turner Prize are Londonbased Forensic Architecture – a collective of 15 architects, film-makers, software developers, journalists and lawyers who have worked around the world. They are joined by filmmakers Naeem Mohaiemen and Luke Willis Thompson in the race to claim the £40,000 first prize.
Scotsman art critic Susan Mansfield said: “It’s an interesting shortlist as all those nominated primarily work in film. There is also a similarity in themes as they are all particularly engaged in issues such as race, gender, and humanitarian causes – although some more than others.
“I wouldn’t say this is the first time this has happened, but
Turner shortlists are generally known as featuring a diverse range of artists with few obvious connections.
“The choice of Forensic Architecture is also intriguing as they are a collective, not all of whom are artists. A similar group, Assemble, won the Turner Prize in 2015 and it raised all kinds of questions about who is an artist,
and what it means to produce art. I think our definitions are becoming much broader.”
Since 1996, six artists associated with Glasgow – Douglas Gordon, Martin Creed, Simon Starling, Richard Wright, Susan Philipsz and Martin Boyce – have all won the Turner Prize.
Many more, including Christine Borland, Tris Vonnamichell, Jim Lambie and Karla Black, have been nominated for the award.
The city’s transformation into an internationally renowned centre for the visual arts has become known as the “Glasgow miracle”, a phrase first used by German curator Hans Ulrich Obrist in 1996.