LONDON — This week the Turner Prize committee announced a shortlist of finalists. The prize is an event that demands attention. In this century they have given this closely-watched honor to a crossdressing potter (Grayson Perry) and in the last edition to a design collaborative (Assemble). On Thursday the committee tapped Anthea Hamilton, Michael Dean, Helen Marten and Josephine Pryde. They will all exhibit at a Turner prize show running from September to January with the winner receiving £25,000.
Above image: Anthea Hamilton, Brick Suit, 2013. Photograph by Kyle Knodell, courtesy of the artist.
Photograph by Kyle Knodell. Click to see a larger image.
This time the image de jour for the announcement is a giant ass being held open within a structure of bricks.
Its creator, Anthea Hamilton, is after our own hearts. The work is heavy on brick and it’s provocative, not only in the subject of the sculpture, but also because selfies are encouraged. Crass sexuality or poor phone etiquette in an art exhibition: which would offend more people? Our money is on the latter and we think it’s cool that obscenity can be found in things that aren’t sexual. The ass showed at her New York show at the SculptureCenter, Lichen! Libido! Chastity! The Guardian has more background information on the work:
Hamilton’s inspiration for the work was a plan in the early 1970s by designer Gaetano Pesce to make a bare male bottom the doorway for a Manhattan skyscraper. Sadly, it was unrealised.
Also in the 37-year-old artist’s New York show were chastity belts made from steel and rubber and PVC pipes in the courtyard made to look like giant cigarettes.
Michelle Cotton, one of this year’s judges, said Hamilton’s work was a “strange combination of humour, exoticism and eroticism that has something to do with her unique and eclectic combination of interests and themes.” These range from 1970s disco to Japanese kabuki theatre.
Anthea Hamilton, Natural Livin’ Boot, 2015. Photograph by Kyle Knodell.
Hamilton is AAA and it reminds us to comment on her recent SculptureCenter show in more depth. Brick, the mighty module, is a popular and growing genre for contemporary painters, sculptors and photographers.
Do you love or loathe this artwork? let us know in the comments.
Yawn.
If there were a Turner prize category for trivia, I think this work would be a superlative entry.
Typical art that shows up at these major Prizes but I have to admit I do love that suit!