Press Release

Turner Prize 2003 Exhibition

Tate Britain  Level 2
29 October 2003 – 18 January 2004

The Turner Prize 2003 exhibition, sponsored by Channel 4, opens on 29 October at Tate Britain. It features work by this year’s shortlisted artists, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Willie Doherty, Anya Gallaccio and Grayson Perry. The £20,000 prize is now in its twentieth year and the winner will be announced during a live broadcast of the award ceremony on Channel 4 on the evening of Sunday 7 December.

The winner will be decided by a jury whose members are: Richard Calvocoressi, Director, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; Frank Cohen, representative of the Patrons of New Art; Chrissie Iles, Curator, Film and Video, Whitney Museum of American Art; Andrew Wilson, Critic and Deputy Editor, Art Monthly; Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate, and Chairman of the Jury.

The shortlisted artists for the Turner Prize 2003 are:

Jake and Dinos Chapman who will exhibit their recent work Insult to Injury in which they have methodically doctored a set of Francisco de Goya’s seminal etchings, The Disasters of War. Situated between an act of desecration and an act of homage, the work reveals the Chapmans’ characteristically subversive wit and ability to disrupt convention. They will also present two major new sculptures.

Willie Doherty who will exhibit his recent video installation Re-Run 2002, a powerful and enigmatic work featuring a looped sequence of a man running across a bridge at night, filmed both as he runs away from and as he approaches the viewer. As with all Doherty’s work Re-Run is highly ambiguous; while perhaps representing the human condition it also makes reference to recent events in Northern Ireland.

Anya Gallaccio who will exhibit a large-scale version of her work in which red gerbera flowers are pinned against the gallery wall and left to decay over the course of the exhibition. Organic and traditional sculptural materials are juxtaposed in because I could not stop 2002, a recent work in which real apples rot on a bronze cast apple tree, marking the passing of time.

Grayson Perry who will show recent and new vases, photographs and embroidery. Tackling compelling subjects such as the suffering of children in the home, his own upbringing in the heart of Essex and the art world itself, Perry uses the medium of ceramics to create visually seductive yet challenging works.

A series of public events at Tate Britain coincide with the exhibition, including Grayson Perry in discussion with psychologist Oliver James (12 November) and Jake Chapman in conversation with Matthew Collings (26 November). The Turner Prize – 20 Years On, a discussion featuring Janet Street-Porter, Tim Marlow and last year’s Turner Prize winner, Keith Tyson, takes place on 31 October.

Please note:
Some of the works in this exhibition are sexually explicit and not recommended for children under 16. Please call 020 7887 8888 (Mon - Fri 10.00-17.30) should you require any further information.

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