Turner Prize Exhibition Opens In Glasgow After Liverpool Run
A housing estate workshop has moved from Liverpool to Glasgow as part of the Turner Prize exhibition which is being staged north of the border for the first time.
Work to transform the part of the Toxteth estate - Granby Four Streets - is in the running for the annual award along with an operatic performance, a study room said to question issues around mental health and a series of dining chairs with fur coats sewn on top.
The exhibition at Glasgow's Tramway opens to the public tomorrow, with the winner of the prestigious #25,000 prize announced at a ceremony in December.
The Liverpool houses were built around 1900 but fell into disrepair after the local council snapped up many of the properties following the Toxteth riots in 1981.
Residents fought plans for demolition and Assemble - a loose-knit collective of about 16 people under 30 - were invited to help locals regenerate the housing and public spaces ''from the ground up''.
London-based Assemble, who are favourites to win the prize, have brought examples of their work in Granby Four Streets to Tramway - including fire places, tables and chairs - and plan to sell it to fund the continuing community rebuild.
Lewis Jones, of Assemble, said: We're really keen to use the platform of the Turner Prize to launch something new that would have real lasting benefits and so what we've done is started a new social enterprise, Granby Workshop, and in the exhibition here is a showroom for that new business which creates products for homes, and it's grown out of the community rebuilding in part of Liverpool that we've been working on for the past few years.''
The Turner Prize has a reputation for controversy, with previous winners including Martin Creed's light going on and off and Grayson Perry's pots tackling subjects like death and child abuse.
This year, Bonnie Camplin is in the running for The Military Industrial Complex - a study room ''drawing from physics, philosophy, psychology, witchcraft, quantum theory and warfare'' on issues around mental health.
Her exhibition includes large TVs, books and a photocopier spread across a room with the public encouraged to make copies of books they are interested in.
Janice Kerbel is nominated for her operatic performance work Doug, made up of nine songs sung by six voices.
Nicole Wermers's Infrastruktur contains a series of chairs with fur coats stitched on top said to allude to themes of lifestyle, class, consumption and control''.
The modern art prize, which was won last year by Duncan Campbell for his series of films called It For Others, is held outside London every other year.
Judith Nesbitt, Tate director of national programmes, said: There's a wide range of work on show from installation, collective work, performance, sculpture and video, so there's something here for everybody.''
Glasgow beat off competition from Nottingham, Walsall and Manchester to stage the exhibition and Tramway director Sarah Munro is delighted to see it in the city.
She said: There's a real strong artistic community in Glasgow and I think this is a project that allows us to share that sense of recognition.''