Art takes back seat as politics and religion dominate Turner shortlist

By Arifa Akbar

Published: 09 May 2007 Independent

An artist who reconstructed an encampment of anti-war banners and placards at Parliament Square has beennominated for the Turner Prize on a shortlist of artists who make trenchant political statements.

Mark Wallinger's reconstruction of Brian Haw's "one-man protest" at Westminster was nominated for the controversial art prize yesterday, alongside the works of Zarina Bhimji, Nathan Coley and Mike Nelson. The artistic preoccupations of the various works range from the Iraq war protest to Idi Amin's repressive regime in Uganda and commentaries on the waning power of religious institutions.

According to Miranda Sawyer, a journalist who is on the judging panel, the issue-led shortlist reflected the fact that "we live in political times".

Christoph Grunenberg, the director of Tate Liverpool, where the prize will be presented, added that the jury, of which he is chair, said: "It was not our intention to set out a political message. It was just interesting that we discovered this pattern which seemed to emerge. Only after the jury had met and discussed the works did we realise there was a strong concentration of political work and work about religious beliefs and spirituality.

"It's an obvious truth, but works of art are actually political acts and artists act as mediators. If you look at the artists this year, there is a spectrum of overtly political works such as Wallinger's and pieces that are about the individual's relationship to the world they live in."

The shortlist in previous years for the coveted £25,000 contemporary art prize have been criticised for being too "conceptual" and divorced from social reality. One year, Tony Kaye attempted to submit a homeless steel worker as his entry, while Damien Hirst won in 1995 with a pickled sheep. Three years later, Chris Ofili scooped the prize with a painting smear-ed with elephant dung. State Britain, by Wallinger, who was previously nominated in 1995, is currently on show at Tate Britain.

Haw began his protest in June 2001. His initial stand was against the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq, but after 11 September 2001 he widened his cause, directing messages of peace against the "war on terror", with a bulging display including banners painted by the graffiti artist Banksy and placards brandishing slogans such as "Peace Salam Shalom" and "UK troops out of Iraq".

In 2005, the Government passed a law restricting protests within a kilometre of Parliament and Haw's protest in Parliament Square opposite the House of Commons was dismantled in May 2006.

Meanwhile, the sculptor Nathan Coley was shortlisted for three installations which use architecture to make political and religious commentary: Camouflage Mosque, Camouflage Church and Camouflage Synagogue, made from cardboard and covered in blue and white striped warship tape from the Second World War. He was also nominated for his film Jerusalem Syndrome, which takes the viewer on a journey around three holy sites representing the world's major monotheistic religions.

Coley is best known for reconstructing the trial courtroom after the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which killed nearly 300 people when a Pan Am aircraft crashed in the Scottish town.

Mike Nelson, another previous Turner nominee, was selected for his labyrinthine installations that serve to disorient the viewer, and is perhaps the least overtly political of the nominated quartet. His nominated work, Mirror Infill, which appeared at last year's Frieze Art Fair, was praised by Sawyer as a powerful antidote to the "slick commercialism" of that fair.

"It is a commercial art fair which is awash with money, and there is Mike's work, which was dark and grubby, and stank of the chemicals he used in the dark room. You got a sense of the work that goes into the making of art as a commercial entity," she said.

Zarina Bhimji's work was influenced by her expulsion from Uganda in 1974 and includes photographs and installations reflecting back on her homeland.

Michael Bracewell, also on the judging panel, said her work varied from being romantic to melancholic, with themes that "deal with beliefs, protest and the unfairness of the world".

In spite of the overtly political tone this year, some have noted that there are no painters on the shortlist. The German abstract painter Tomma Abts won last year.

The prize's presentation in Liverpool in December will make it the first time in its 23-year history that it has been awarded outside London. The event will be the curtain-raiser for the city's selection as the European Capital of Culture in 2008.

THE SHORTLIST

Nathan Coley

Born in Glasgow in 1967, Coley is the only artist not based in London. The 39-year-old works in sculpture, photography, drawing and video. He investigates our man-made environment and the ways in which it embodies conflicting religious, social and political beliefs. For Coley, buildings are given significance by their social history and by the communities that inhabit them. Best known for his works on the Lockerbie bombing.

Zarina Bhimji

Uganda-born Bhimji's work encompasses photography, installation, film and sound, often beginning with an extensive period of research. Photographs that constitute her recent series, Love, were originally taken as part of investigations for her film, Out of Blue, shot in her native country. The film's haunting, unpopulated images of airports, dilapidated buildings and cemeteries bears visual references to extermination, perhaps reflecting her own explusion from Idi Amin's repressive regime. Bhimji, aged 43, graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art and has shown extensively in Britain and abroad.

Mark Wallinger

Wallinger, 48, was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995 and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2001. After studying at Goldsmiths College he came to prominence in the mid-1980s and gained a reputation as one of the most ambitious artists in Britain. He was nominated for State Britain, which reflects his engagement with contemporary political issues, through the recreation of anti-war protest banners.

Mike Nelson

Nelson, 41, is among two previous nominees on the shortlist. At the 2001 Venice Biennale he was shortlisted for The Deliverance and the Patience, an installation consisting of 16 rooms in response to Venice's history, geography and architecture. He was nominated for an installation in the Frieze Art Fair in London last year in which his work transported the viewer to an abandoned dark room with photographs documenting the transformation of the location from a building site to completion. Born in Loughborough, he gained an MA from Chelsea College of Art and Design and now lives in London and Edinburgh.