' I’m not ready!’
Turner Prize Winner
Laure Prouvost
 
On the day they announced the Turner Prize winner, I went to the betting shop and bet on Laure Provost to win 4/1, she was ranked outside the favourite Tino Seghal. I was fully confident in my bet and I am happy to say this year’s winner of the Turner Prize is French, female and the mother of a two month old girl, Celeste. She is the fifth female to win the prize since the award began in 1984. Twenty-four men have won the prize. This years four nominees comprised of two men and two women- Tino Seghal, David  Shrigley, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Laure Prouvost. On the eve of the announcement, alongside Irish Hollywood Saoirse Ronan, Laure Prouvost stood on stage while Saoirse sweetly held her baby as she tried to find the words to express her obvious joy, excitement and complete surprise at winning the Turner Prize 2013. Obviously not expecting it she exclaimed ‘I’m not ready’ but the art world think she is and there has been a positive 'thumbs up'  with  unanimous show of support  for her work on show in Derry.

REVIEW TO FOLLOW SHORTLY

Siobhan McGibbon’s work derives from an obsessive fascination with the extraordinary, in particularly the study of teratology; the analysis of perceived abnormalities in the natural world, both real and imagined, such as Congenital Hypertrichosis Languoniosa, a condition where the body is covered with thin Langua hair. McGibbon’s work explores society’s interpretation of conventional anatomy and questions the future of “normal”. 


As part of ‘Dublin Contemporary: Terrible Beauty – Art Crisis, Change and the Office of Non-Compliance’ Dublin’s first major international exhibition of contemporary art since the last ROSC in 1988 Siobhan McGibbon speaks of a new generation inspired by Dorothy Cross whether acknowledged or not. 

“We are not part of a line and we are not of the world and we are unused to the practice of conveying.”

In July, two Galway-based artists (Vicky Smith and Ruby Wallis) developed a self-funded temporary off-site project titled Under-the-Counter Poster Manifestation to highlight the amount of vacant spaces in Galway City during the Volvo Ocean Race and Galway Arts Festival.  Several window shops that had been vacant for 6 to 12 months were selected. They became a temporary gallery space for 16 artists. The timing was considered to be appropriate in that the streets selected offered a large-scale and new audience to the artists.

‘A gesture maybe a ‘young project’: but it is more argumentative.., and it speculates riskily on the future’[1]

Gestures within the young modernist avant- garde movement arose out of a response to a threat and a challenge within the art world.[2] The work created was experimental and innovative and pushed the boundaries of the status quo within the ‘norm’. Peter Burger in ‘The Theory of the avant- garde’ believes it is necessary for art to retain its autonomy in order to have any voice at all. Within this it can be asked, is the artist as curator autonomous and in this legacy do we see a body of artists as curators?

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What is waiting out there” redirects the eye from the art on view across six venues to a reality where simple patterns and images of the world can be used. The reality of what is waiting out there presented in the Berlin Biennale is deeply connected to realism and the senses. There is no art explosion or mass circus feeling to the crowd or in the work. Local and nomadic intertwine in this new biennale reality. A social function is being served in this exhibition. The works are reflexive, intimate and grounded. There are messages to be read in the video art, film, installations, drawings and even the untouched graffiti on the walls of the derelict buildings used to house this sixth Biennale. An educated discourse on issues of economic injustice, protests, terrorism, environmental destruction, global migration, foreign workers and teenagers takes place. Artist’s depictions of life scenarios add to this notion of a ‘dreary reality’ (2) and a presentation of today’s human challenges and troubled realities. But there is more to this than meets the eye. It is visionary in form, honest, full of sensory intrigue, delicacy, enlightenment and an education.