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Mike Nelson
Shortlisted: 2001

Mike Nelson creates large-scale architectural installations, transforming existing spaces with meticulous constructions made from found objects. He fuses an encyclopedic range of references into three-dimensional narratives. By littering his works with pertinent objects, he aims to provoke viewers into questioning their individual standpoints; he relies on the viewer's involvement to continue or complete the scene. Looking at his work is an active experience: viewers have to move around, through or into his installations to see them entirely.

The Cosmic Legend of the Uroboros Serpent 2001 Mixed media installation, dimensions variable © Courtesy the artist and Matt's Gallery, London   Photo: Tate Photography/Mark Heathcote

Mike Nelson was born in Loughborough, England in 1967. He studied at Reading University from 1986 to 1990 and attended Chelsea College of Art and Design between 1992 and 1993. In 2001 he was shortlisted for the Prize, for the 'haunting resonance of his architectural installations,' as seen in his contributions to the British Art Show and Another Place, a National Touring Exhibition.

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