‘Blur’ video director nominated for Turner Prize

LONDON: A humorous cartoonist who directed a Blur pop video is up against an artist who orchestrates “live encounters,bri” in the shortlist for this year’s Turner Prize — one of the world’s most disputed art awards.
The other two contenders are a French-born film-maker and a painter who has become the award’s first black female nominee.
The annual modern art prize, organized by London’s Tate Britain gallery, is one of Europe’s most prestigious for the visual arts. It awards £ 25,000 ($ 38,500, 29,500 euros) to the winner and £ 5,000 to those shortlisted.
Cartoonist David Shrigley, known for his funny drawings, photographs and writing, was nominated for his “Brain Activity” exhibition, which organizers said showed off his “humor, macabre intelligence and infinite jest.” The Scottish artist directed the video for “Good Song” by Brit pop legends Blur, while he has also collaborated with indie rockers Franz Ferdinand and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.
Also nominated is French-born Laure Prouvost, whose recent films included a montage of images of the natural world which aimed to interpret the taste of the sun.
She “employs strong story-telling, quick cuts, montage and deliberate misuse of language to create surprising and unpredictable work,” Tate Britain said. Tino Sehgal, who last year filled the Tate Modern gallery’s Turbine Hall with storytellers, is the first artist specializing in “encounter” installations to be shortlisted.
The British-German artist’s works “test the limits of artistic material and audience perception in a new and significant way,” the Tate said.
The shortlist is completed by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, who paints imagined figures and is the first black woman to figure in the Turner line-up.
The prize was set up in 1984 and is awarded to a British or UK-based artist aged under 50 for an outstanding presentation of their work in the previous 12 months.
It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art.