Newsletter
Enter your email address here to receive updates from the team.
Poll
Jobs
Policy | Charity & Fundraising | Research | Education | Executive | Media | Social Care | Communications
User login
RSSProtesting the Turner Prize: is this the death of irony?
At a swish awards ceremony, the young artists of the future assembled to call out the hypocrisy of the rich.
By Laurie Penny Published 07 December 2010 9:13
In the lowlit central hall of the Tate, the great and good have gathered for Britain's most prestigious art award; dealers and society belles are sipping champagne at black marble tables strewn with lilies, dressed in exquisite suits and designer dresses slashed to the thigh. The Turner Prize is an international by-word for gently baffling art, and its promotion of bland iconoclasts like Tracey Emin helped consolidate the self-reflexive iconography of the Blair era. This, believe it or not, was what radicalism in this country used to look like -- but over the tinkle of piped-in piano music and wry discussion of ironic sculpture, a real cry of protest has gone up. Cordoned off behind two ranks of makeshift barriers, the young artists of the future have assembled to call out the hypocrisy of the rich.
Two hundred students from Goldsmiths, the Slade, St Martin's, Camberwell and other world-famous art and fashion colleges are intoning their demands in solemn unison, their voices amplified by the heavenly acoustics of the stone hallway into which they have been shepherded by the police. They mobilised via Facebook and Twitter to disrupt the Turner award ceremony in protest against upcoming government cuts to arts and humanities funding, higher education and public sector jobs. "We are not just here to fight fees!" they yell. "We are here to fight philistinism!"
The sound of their chanting rises psalmlike behind the police line, which has been tastefully boarded off by resourceful staff members. I'm not actually supposed to be here. When I heard that friends and comrades from occupations across the city were planning to disrupt the Turner Prize, I snuck in past the heavy security using the time-honoured journalist method of walking purposefully and authoritatively in the direction of somewhere you're definitely not supposed to be. I dash surreptitiously through the party and then dodge around the modesty screens separating it from the party, too fast for the security guards to grab me.
Suddenly, we're through the looking glass. On one side of this screen, sullen middle-aged people have been made rich beyond their wildest dreams by exploiting popular nihilism; on the other, the age of apathy has ended as the trendy wing of Britain's disenfranchised youth reminds the wealthy that there's more to radicalism than pickling half a sheep in some preserving fluid. They are crammed into an alcove conducting what one dreamy-eyed young hipster solemnly informs me is a "noise protest", shouting down Miuccia Prada as she awards the prize to a more gentle and considered sound installation.
"For too long, we were taught that our art could only reference itself endlessly, like a snake eating its own tail. But this is real," says Margarita, 22, a media student at the Slade school of art. "Ironic art is dead now -- it's undead," she says. "That's because we finally have hope. We have something real, something to believe in again."
"As an artist, this protest is a huge relief," says Simon, another Slade occupier. "That's not just because we have to stop the cuts to arts and the public sector, it's a relief because it's serious -- the issues are deeply serious."
Simon and Margarita belong to the generation that grew up in the apathetic nineties, when passion and idealism were unmodish and an ironic shrug the only authentic response to the rampant banality of consumer culture. But something has changed. For weeks now, the young British artists of the future have been occupying their departments in solidarity with the student riots taking place up and down the country, barricading the doors and abandoning their individual projects to work collectively on more practical art: banner-making and impromptu installations in vinyl and ink on the theme of capital and complicity. Meanwhile, delegates at the Turner Prize party munch on very expensive miniature snacks, cannibalising greasy crumbs of the caustic pre-crash self-reflexion industry.
Behind the screen, the children's crusade is screaming to be allowed some semblance of a secure future. On the other side of the looking glass, as the well-heeled cultural elite of the Blair era drift in lazy pirouettes of ironic self-regard, the prize-winner Susan Philipsz takes a moment in her acceptance speech to defend those pesky kids that everyone had been trying so hard to ignore. 'Education is a right, not a privilege," she says, "So I support what the students are doing, I support the arts against cuts campaign." I peek behind the police line just in time to watch the ironic smiles freeze into a group rictus of dismay.
Related articles
Pop culture and radical politics with a feminist twist
Latest Posts by our Bloggers
From the magazine
-
Jason Cowley -
Sophie Elmhirst -
Martha Gill -
Rafael Behr -
George Eaton -
John Pilger -
Will Self -
Bryan Appleyard -
Samira Shackle -
Rafael Behr
Elsewhere on the Blogosphere
- ConservativeHome
Could George Osborne's leadership ambitions deliver a referendum on the EU? - Political Scrapbook
Latest data shows recession worsen after Tory HQ attempt to spin figures - Coffee House
The coalition: two years in - Left Foot Forward
Spending watchdog slams Regional Growth Fund waste - James Kirkup
LOL: David Cameron's love-texts to Rebekah Brooks could mean voters laugh out loud – at his expense
Blogroll
- Alastair Campbell
- Benedict Brogan
- Coffee House
- Comment Central
- Conservative Home
- Dave's Part
- Gary Gibbon
- Guardian Politics
- Hopi Sen
- Iain Dale
- Labour List
- Labour Uncut
- Left Foot Forward
- Liberal Conspiracy
- Liberal Democrat Voice
- Luke Akehurst
- Neil Clark
- Next Left
- Our Kingdom
- Paul Waugh
- Penny Red
- Pickled Politics
- Political Betting
- Political Scrapbook
- Simon Fletcher
- The Bleeding Heart Show
- Think Politics
- UK Polling Report
Latest tweets
More from New Statesman
- Tools and services:
- Polls
- Predictions
- Jobs
- Archive
- Magazine
- PDF edition
- RSS feeds
- Subscribe
- Special supplements
- Stockists
46 comments
philipz was supported by artangel when she was nominated - she got the double whammy of the church of angels cashing in on the prize. they were slapping the backs of the pathetic likes of adrian searle to write gushing articles on her and installing her awful middle aged sentimental crap all over the place - inviting the great and the good to the table to ensure her success and their place in the arts council register. Its vile. The otolith group on the other work their guts out alone - took the risk of presenting a film they made, they filmed and edited about a little known director in the West and an unmade screenplay of his called the Alien. The film is layered and fun, serious and sad ... so many voices and the soundtrack is intense. They also presented their Chris Marker collaboration and did 3 events which if anyone had gone to - u would have found rich brilliant ideas being discussed in relation to experimental TV politics art etc. Very generous and open to all. Both artists in the Otolith Group seem to work very hard to maintain the dignity of their work in the face of the institutional call to the traditional minimalism in the white gallery and competition. They ignored all that and occupied the building with good ideas and good work. Choosing Philipz is a stupid idea..They even did another event in their space today and looked tired. Philipz has been marketed into winning. The judges should have chosen Eshun and Sagar.
YOU MUST NOT MISS IT!!!
-------------- http://www.ftoto.com/ -----------
a leading worldwide wholesale company (or ucan say organization). We supply more than 100 thousand high-quality merchandise and famous brand name products all at wholesale prices.
-------------- http://www.ftoto.com/ -----------
Send Christmas Gifts. Buy more to send.
God, I can't wait for the vote at this point so people will move on and stop bitching.
Let's hope you're right, Laurie. Seriously, there were really expressions of dismay at Philipsz' remarks? That makes the whole thing all the more gratifying. Good work, students, and good luck to our future artists!
It'll be fascinating to see how this movement of passion, authenticity and meaning affects (and effects) art. Can't help but suspect that it'll get a lot more interesting!
The glitter and prestige of the Turner prize-giving is deceptive - the most renowned British artists of the '90s came from working-class backgrounds and with the exception of Tracey Emin, who's turned social climbing and aristocratic arselickery into a 21st century art form, they haven't turned Tory or Establishment. They were the last generation to go through uni with maintenance grants and fees paid and haven't forgotten. Many of them teach at London's art colleges and are just as angry as the students about the fees and cuts; many of them will be with protestors come Thursday.
It might have been difficult to tell from the other side of a wall of PC Bacon, but great cheers went up from the audience when Serota, Prada and Phillipsz all mentioned the importance of arts and student funding and *supported the protest*.
'...there's more to radicalism than pickling half a sheep in some preserving fluid...'
Love it!
I have always suspected the ybas and anything that resembles them of having a deeply thatcherite streak. The rampant individualism, the enormous prices, the alienation, the champagne, the desire to hoard cash value in abstraction. How wonderful if these protests managed to install a Stalinist interregnum to teach these filthy cool britannia kulaks that no amount of canapes can fill the void where their souls ought to be. In fact, I reckon Britain should set up its own state run epz, staffed entirely by Tory voters, the privately educated and buy to let landlords. We could charge Philip green for the labor of these toiling toffs.
The idea that there is some kind of authentic working class art that will overthrow the decadent order of the past, as evinced in the above piece of gush, is the living national monument of cliches, and at least 150 years old. As such, this piece is itself philistine: that is, it knows nothing about what it attempts to criticise.
Indeed, one could argue that it is the first step on the benighted, doctrinaire path to the suffocating 'proletarian' art like Soviet Socialist Realism.
As to 'installations...on the theme of capital and complicity', all I can say is: where have you been? I've hardly seen one ACE-funded installation that HASN'T 'interrogated' such 'notions'.Such ideas ARE the academy. You will find them propagated in art schools across the country.
Keep them coming Laurie, the protesters are reading you.
Never mind ironic cynical nihilistic art, we need more serious and earnest journalism.
And for the record, my name is changed to SNARK by whoever runs the site. I put my own name. Presumably, you're supposed to agree with the piece otherwise you get insulted. Nice one, New Statesman!
Its an absolute disgrace that 'sound' one without a single brushstroke. What is Art coming to, when a pile of rubbish appears in the shortlist. Someone please set up The Alternative Turner Prize.
belong to the generation that grew up in the apathetic nineties, when passion and idealism were unmodish and an ironic shrug the only authentic response to the rampant banality of consumer culture. But something has changed.
Nail on head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYQsS-A3kgc
far better .. philipz is crap
http://freeartlondon.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/free-turner-prize-roundtab...
What this piece fails to mention is that the vast majority of guests inside Tate last night were supportive of the protest, and made that clear in their response to Nicholas Serota's speech and Susan Philipsz's. And many were people who will be marching with students on Thursday. There was no "rictus of dismay". I can quite see how it's rhetorically useful, or at least fun, to cast what happened last night as a protest against the apathy and "irony" of the middle-aged, given some of the well-heeled in attendance. But it wasn't that; it was a protest against the education cuts, and many of the guests were artists, teachers and workers for museums and public galleries whose livelihoods are directly endangered by Tory arts and education policy. Rich beyond our wildest dreams? You have got to be kidding.
Worse, Laurie Penny ignores shortlisted artist Anjalika Sagar's speech to students outside (linked above), and Serota's meeting with and support of the protestors, presumably because they don't fit the skewed narrative and tone of her piece. It's hugely disappointing to have an inspired and inspiring protest caricatured like this.
Let the Last Men blink at their ironic happiness; their nihilism is not the End of History.
The Establishment should be very, very afraid right now.
And it deserves to be!
I'm sure the Establishment are trembling at a pair of ball-achingly vacuous artists like Simon and Margarita.
"Because it's serious."
Wow, not since seeing Kissinger in action have I been so awed with such astute analysis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQRaDmQiovs
Can you stop calling it the "children's crusade"
Turner prize? Establishment?
Oh FFS.
Laurie, you're missing a trick if you think those of us who work in the arts are anything but 100% behind the students and against the cuts. Owning a posh frock slashed to the thigh does not qualify a person for the ranks of the uber-priveledged. There may be the occasional Rothschild in the bunch, but most of us are living on fuck-all money and diminishing levels of hope. And we're expressing solidarity where we can by - for example - attending protests and taking food parcels and supplies to the nearest student occupation.
Pick on someone else if you want an easy target - we ain't it.
Haha okay I'll stop calling it that.
But really, I did see a lot of awkwardness in the party; maybe some people are in support, and a lot of people rushed to say so afterwards (unfortunately I missed what Mark Serota said, as the shouting was so loud, but I did tweet Anjelika's comments - she's great! We gave her a huge cheer and told her she was our real winner) when it actually happened, people were uncomfortable.
I do draw a distinction, though, between the glitterati of the art establishment and actual British artists, most of whom were not at the Turner Prize, I'll warrant. Most of the people in that room probably wouldn't have known sublimity if it had walked up and smacked them in the mouth. The work of true artists has been almost entirely delocalised from the edgy-art-industry, and these cuts to arts funding will be the last straw effecting that divide. Real artists are poor and they are like to stay poor, now.
By contrast, as you say, we've had great support at the student occupations from workers in all professions, including low-waged creatives, and that support is hugely appreciated.
So refreshing to read this article. I have been in an arts group called furtherfield who have actively gone against such hegemonic nonsense since 96, we are involved in art, technology and social change; and have constantly challenged this kind of top-down gatekeeping in the arts - perhaps it's our time now http://www.furtherfield.org
Keep it up over there!! We on this side of the pool are watching and screaming too!! Rememeber...The Whole World IS Watching!!
OK - before I go any further I probably need to make it clear that I think these protests are important - the the people protesting are clever and brave.
That said:
What's with protesting the bloody Turner prize? (the K foundation and the Stuckists beat you to it btw) All looks a bit straw man from where I'm standing.
I know that there's a good PR reason to do this, but I don't buy *any* of the political grandstanding on this one. You preached to the choir and they helped you to make it look radical, because they largely agree with you.
You are a gifted writer and your column is compulsive. I don't agree with everything you say but it is certainly highlighting and underbelly of radical discontent that is not well reported.
What's dead is Spin. And Wikileaks did for that, not the Deficit Wars.
The interesting question is how much is Wikileaks a direct product of the 2008 collapse of capitalism. And how it will give courage to those fighting the cuts.
"Snark 08 December 2010 at 09:13
The idea that there is some kind of authentic working class art that will overthrow the decadent order of the past, as evinced in the above piece of gush,"
The class system is an economic and political reality. Without it, you would be ploughing a field with oxen.
You know, I'm just going to post to agree with Sam. As a student and a police officer, I tend to completely disagree with everything you write and stand for, but I can't help but admire the quality of the writing.
However the middle-classes play, it's pretty hard to stomach... Goldsmiths indeed. The Tate Modern...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgXaB00U9z4
"Hate is art and we steal cars
Decaying flowers in the playgrounds of the rich"
A loose definition of art:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Y2yTirltk
well well well andreas,your a student and a police officer,how weird,who side will you be on this week if it kicks off after the vote on the students tuition fees,bloody hell, cant tell whos undercover at these student demos these days,he he.
I agree with bgdillon above. This
article will make no sense to anyone
who watched the ceremony 0n Channel 4
T.V. The protest was obviously supported by Serota and all who clapped
him. Why do journalists like creating
silly fantasies ?
Bravo for your subtle class analysis of the British art world, Laurie. A working-class woman like Emin making it in the art world? How inelegant! That's what I call a '(f)emin(ist) twist'...
Artists who side with the students should boycotte the establishment exhibitions!
Most art of the 90's was a load of pseudo-intellectual crap.
eg an artist in New Zealand collected all the discarded wrapings of his colleagues arranged in another heap called it 'collateral' and won first prize of $12,000!!!
Can you tell me that was a straight show? No art students are much better employed painting slogans that will raise the collective consciousness of the new zeitgiest!!!
I was there, and I am so glad that some of the press have actually got it straight. I felt so empowered being able to go where I wanted and say what I want. There was a future turner winner sat in that hall in my mind.
Post new comment