re:mote voices

Title:Turner Prize 2006
Artists: Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Mark Titchner and Rebecca Warren
Venue: Tate Britain - 3 October 2006 – 14 January 2007

While in London last weekend I managed to get to the last day of the Turner Prize exhibit at the Tate Britain. Works by the four finalists were on display, each with a room full of work. Tomma Abts was the winner with her serious of abstract paintings, everyone of which is a rigid 48cm x 38cm canvas, which she layers paint on, until something emerges. Her work is reasonably striking, though I by far prefer the work of Mark Titchner - the artist encountered first as you came into the exhbit. Combining installation pieces, computer generated imagary, and random inspirational/psychotic slogans, Titchner's work just had a certain something that worked really well as far as i was concerned. From Titchner through to Warren, who I have seen some interesting work by, just not as part of this exhibit. Mishapen lumps of material sit, clumps of bronzes and whites, on pedestals, surrounded by glass cases with little neon elements and found objects. The impression is of half finished projects, of pieces that have sat too long and been canablised for other pieces. Which is perhaps the intent, but did little for me. The final room was the work of Phil Collins, who I last saw in the Tate Britain last year - another video piece. The Return of The Real is a study or reality television, in Turkey, interviewing people who have appeared in all kinds of "real" TV to see how it has affected their life. At one end of a dark room we see the interviewee, at the other the interviewer, giving a unique view on the process.