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Willie Doherty
Shortlisted: 1994, 2003

Willie Doherty works with the camera. Since the late 1980s, he has used his native city, Derry, and its surrounding countryside as his main subjects: as he comments: 'I am writing from a place with two names, Derry and Londonderry. The same place. Here things are never what they seem and always have more than one name.' His work offers a critical response to the sort of distorted documentation offered by much media coverage.

The Only Good One is a Dead One (detail)
The Only Good One is a Dead One (detail) 1993
Double-screen video projection with sound, dimensions variable
Weltkunst Foundation  
© Courtesy the artist, Matt's Gallery London and Alexander and Bonin, New York
(Shortlisted 1994)

RE-RUN
RE-RUN 2002
Video installation with projection on two screens (colour, thirty seconds).
First shown XXV Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil 2002
Tate. Purchased 2003   © the artist   Photo: John Riddy
(Shortlisted 2003)

Willie Doherty was born in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1959. He graduated with a degree in Fine Art from Ulster Polytechnic in 1981. He was nominated in 1994 for his works shown at Matt's Gallery, the Arnolfini Gallery and the Douglas Hyde Gallery. He was shortlisted for a second time in 2003 for the continued strength and relevance of his film installations and photographic works.

This information has been taken from The Turner Prize: Twenty Years, by Virginia Button, Tate Publishing, 2003.

View Willie Doherty in the Tate Collection