THE TURNER PRIZE 2023

Towner, Eastbourne

28 September 2023 to 14 April 2024

The Turner Prize 2023, the world’s leading prize for contemporary art, arrives in Eastbourne this year. It’s the centrepiece of Towner Eastbourne’s Centenary year. No doubt the Towner organisation, Eastbourne Borough Council and East Sussex County Council will be pleased with hosting such a thought provoking and exciting exhibition that aims to promote public debate around new developments in (contemporary) art. The Towner has been transformed, with an exhibition of work by Jesse Darling, Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker, that displays the broad nature and range of (contemporary) art. *

No, no, no. Don’t start in this predictable manner and beware of repetition. What’s the angle? What’s the thematic hook to grab the reader’s attention and to keep them reading until the end of your piece?

Angle #1

Towner, Eastbourne.

Note to self: Focus the first paragraph on Eastbourne, the brilliant Towner and the contemporaneous by extracting some lines of text from the website and the press release. (See above) *

It’s possible that other commentators who write about the exhibition will start in this way. Eastbourne, like so many other impoverished coastal towns in the UK, needs the media attention to encourage tourism to support employment and the local economy. But don’t mention party politics or the mismanagement of the UK economy in this context. (Note: Eastbourne has a Tory MP who probably won’t want a photo opp. with the Windrush imagery from Barbara Walker.) Maybe politics, broadly speaking, is implicit in the works on display anyway. I think I have quickly slipped into dangerous ground. But it would be an opportunity to use the term quagmire… and who reads this anyway…

Angle #2

Tradition and medium specificity?

As the annual Turner Prize (with thanks to J.M.W. Turner) comes round again to remind us that, despite the appropriation of the name of the famous English painter, painting (and to some extent sculpture), is now no longer the paramount art work medium. Installation and the ‘expanded field’ are still in vogue though, and there’s film, poetry and performance. How very Postmodern, with or without irony. But this might make me sound like a grumpy painter…

Angle #3

Emphasise the shock of the new, (with thanks to Robert Hughes).

If there’s an opportunity for shock value in the visual arts, then the Turner Prize will often please the tabloid newspapers. Jesse Darling presents a fascinating sort of junkyard with many found materials, wherein dysfunction functions. And Ghislaine Leung requires the gallery organisation to create the artwork based on her simple instructions. Is this the advanced, aesthetically inclined gig economy at work? Actually, who’s shocked anymore? The shock of the old probable lurks somewhere.

Angle #4

We’re all in this together, (with thanks to David Cameron and George Osborne).

The contemporary artist is no longer required to be a troubled outsider or aloof in any way. It would not be difficult to identify with or understand the plight of the Windrush generation, represented by Barbara Walker. Ghislaine Leung works in an immediate kind of ‘here and now’ in terms of space, sound and labour. Jesse Darling appropriates, reconfigures and transforms objects we see we see regularly. Rory Pilgrim’s RAFTS film emphasizes the requirements of community and common humanity: dangerously socialist principles, perhaps – with a strong hint of Christian belief that is comforting on a humanist level.

Angle #5

Get with the program: Community. Identity. Inclusion. Socio-economics. Feminism etc.

These are the themes of the moment for so many arts organisations and how are they represented in the finalists’ work? Aesthetics have been out for decades, after all. No more art for art’s sake nonsense. Themes dominate just about all forms of contemporary art practice today, irrespective of the visual. That’s rather simplistic.

Angle #6

Get outside of the box (with thanks to Henry Ernest Dudeny).

The impact on the critic and/or the viewer is always implicit but what about the artwork’s point of view? The thinking, feeling, non-sentient being takes the stage. Could I explore notions of materiality taken to a higher level – encompassing hints of Artificial Intelligence? This would be a challenging exercise for a Creative Writing student, I’m sure. Been there but didn’t do it…

I don’t think angles are working for me, but, maybe:

Angle #7

Just blurt it out, then tweak for detail.

I arrived a day early, but returned for the press preview the next day. The staff greeted me kindly and someone gave me a goody bag of information and a stick of rock. She smiled as if to say, you’ve been here before, but I won’t embarrass you. The queue for coffee was so long, I went without. But that was good, as so many people have travelled to Eastbourne who may not have been here before. I already know the place quite well as I taught here for five years (in the 1980s), when the original Towner was in the Old Town area. It’s quite a different organisation now, but built on the same principles for offering art to the general public.

There was an interesting and informative introductory session with four speakers, including Joe Hill (Director and CEO of Towner Eastbourne); Heather Sturdy (Head of National Partnerships at Tate); and Gyr King from McGaw and King the sponsors. In the audience was one of my favourite contemporary poets, Sue Hubbard, and so was someone else I chose to avoid (not an interesting story), but the place was packed. Pen and notebook at the ready. The final speaker, Noelle Collins (Exhibitions & Offsite Curator, Towner Eastbourne) rounded off the formalities by preparing us for the four artists who presented “remarkably different practices” but who were all responding to the world around them. She stressed humanity and vulnerability.

First stop was the introductory ‘Welcome to Turner Prize 2023’ area on the ground floor with video monitors showing short introductory films about the artist. Fortunately they were subtitled, as two pairs of headphones were inadequate for so many visitors attending this space. Then into Ghislaine Leung’s display on the same floor. The main feature is a water fountain but I am drawn to a graphical, wall painting that is the same size as the artist’s home studio wall. It shows a grid representing 168 hours of the week with two blocks of seven hours filled in to represent her available studio hours. To be fair, I am not quite tuned in to the exhibition. At this point introductory videos don’t do it for me so I decide to get around the whole show fairly swiftly as I normally choose to do and then return to individual sections.

Swiftly didn’t happen but for a positive reason. The next section on the first floor is about to show Rory Pilgrim’s film RAFTS. My usual experience of film/video in art exhibitions is for most of the coming and going audience to hang around for a couple of minutes and then to move on, irrespective of the length of time required for the whole screening. There are approximately fifty of us in attendance and 1 hour 6 minutes later virtually all of us are still there, plus half a dozen latecomers. We were transfixed, whether we were seated or standing. In the same room some paintings by the artist and three characters that appeared in the film are displayed. It was difficult to look at these works in the semi-darkness. They seemed to work as installation pieces that were secondary to the filmed performances encompassing the spoken word and commentary, dancing, song and a short prayer.

Next were the second floor galleries, the best space in the building, to see works from Jesse Darling and Barbara Walker. Darling’s sculptures had been almost crammed into this space but left enough room to walk around to inspect each piece. It is a brilliant installation feat, where the space is used to the max without going overboard. One of the sculptures, ‘Corpus (Fortress)’, is placed at the entrance to the section occupied by Barbara Walker. Here the visitor will see nine huge framed drawings illustrating three British citizens from the Windrush generation who had been denied their immigration status by the Home Office. Their portraits are integrated with drawn versions of documents, some official, that would surely be evidence enough for them to be welcomed to stay rather than harassed and hounded by officialdom. In the same space, a massive wall drawing depicts five people drawn directly onto the wall. They will be washed off at the close of the exhibition next April. I felt that some of the washing away could have started at the outset of the show to add impact, but the message of incredulity about Conservative government inspired Home Office actions was still there. I hope that the work celebrates these people.

Then it was time to go back to Ghislaine Leung’s display. I could focus on the installed ‘Fountain’ now. It’s sound ironically cancelling sound. Without understanding why, this was quite beautiful. I also read the wall painting as a minimalist-type grid (echoes of Agnes Martin). Whist the medium might be the message, in a certain frame of mind the message is the medium. That’s what makes all of this art and not mere propaganda or a secondary form for the ideas that have generated the practice.

Who will win the Turner Prize? Why not have four winners as there were in 2019? For what it’s worth I would choose Jesse Darling today, but tomorrow might select Ghislaine Leung. I would guess that the public would nominate Barbara Walker (for the subject matter, not the drawing). So, of course, it will be Rory Pilgrim – his works will cheer us all up. I really don’t think it matters.