Mannequins, Felix the Cat and a Deep-Sea Diver...it's the Turner Prize.
Nominations came out at breakfast time. HERE is a link with much more from Nigel Wrench than we were able to squeeze on to PM: a specially recorded interview with Stephen Deuchar, who chairs the Turner Prize jury,
Nigel was at Tate Britain as this picture shows, he's talking to one of the judges Suzanne Cotter of Modern Art Oxford who may be on PM tonight.
And the nominees are: Runa Islam a film-maker.
(Runa Islam, Be The First To See What You See As You See It, 2004, 16mm film with sound Duration: 7 minutes 30 seconds, © the artist, courtesy Jay Jopling, London)
Second nominee: Mark Leckey, mostly a film-maker, fascinated by The Simpsons and Felix the Cat.
(Mark Leckey, Production still from Felix Gets Broadcasted 2007 Photographic print and pencil 37 x 45.5 cm Courtesy Cabinet, London. Private collection)
You can hear Mr Lecky on PM tonight telling us why he deserves to win, but will he beat nominee number three? She's Goshka Macuga, whose work, the Tate tells us, consists of "carefully staged mixed-media installations"
(Goshka Macuga, Objects in Relation Installation shot from Art Now at Tate Britain 2007 © Tate photography)
And the final nominee, Cathy Wilkes..
(Cathy Wilkes Installation view: Selective Memory Scotland and Venice, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 2005. Courtesy of the Artist, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow. Photo: Ruth Clark Photography)
Nigel's at Christie's, or should be in time for PM to ask about the financial value of a Turner nomination. What would you pay to have this art in your living room?

~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~53~RS~)
CommentsSign in
You need to sign in to contribute to this page. If you're new to BBC Blogs, creating your membership is quick and easy.
Nice picture of Nigel, who looks nothing like I thought he would, but very lovely nonetheless!!
Hmmm. This is the sort of art where you need the artist's explanation of how and why before you get it, I think. I always feel I should devote more time to learning about modern art. Installations are a great way to explore a variety of themes, but some explorations can be more abstract than others ;)
As for my living room - not enough space, I fear . . .
Complain about this comment
Oh how I hope Felix wins - Just because it's Felix (who keeps on walking, don't you know!)
Complain about this comment
Sorry, I have to say that any artwork that requires an explanation as to what it is or represents leaves me cold. Yes, I know this could class me as a cultural ignoramus, but as far as I'm concerned, art as an "intellectual exercise" is always trumped by art that generates an emotional response
Complain about this comment
Would I pay etc...
A resounding 'No'. Followed by hysterical laughter at the notion that this is somehow art, rather than a gigantic con which we're all expected to go along with, rather than reveal our apparent ignorance of modern art.
It's idiotic garbage isn't it?
WR.
Complain about this comment
Looks like a womanequin to me. I find better stuff in skips.
Complain about this comment
Not news, not interesting, not worthy of the effort the BBC continually puts into reporting 'the arts'. Go and find someone with some science or engineering savvy and do some interesting reporting.
There was a report last week that children just want to be rich and famous. This is, in good part, because of the poor reporting by the arts and sports obsessed 'media' in this country that can't cope with anything more challenging.
The turner prize should be used for toilet paper, about its level, and probably resulting in something that could be entered next year.
Complain about this comment
Excuse me but that is not Nigel Wrench. I've seen him in my head many times and he looks nothing like that!
Quite handsome though, isn't he?
Hmm Fearless (3), I'm sort of with you in that I do think art should generate an emotional response, but I am happy for it to be an intellectual exercise as well (but not instead).
Complain about this comment
Picture 4 looks like William Walker waiting for the bags of cement to arrive.
Complain about this comment
Is it art with a capital F ?
Complain about this comment
mgl 9,
No, it is P art.
Complain about this comment
I agree with Big Sister, Felix should win.
Complain about this comment
For those new to the "Turner Prize" think Eurovision Song Contest / Fashion Shows / Jonathon Ross etc - it's equally laughably divorced from a purpose in life and exists purely as a media money bandwagon. Like a gnat bite it's best ignored.
Complain about this comment
FF @ 3, I find it especially superterrific if the explanation is on printed sheets on the wall next to the art, and actually covers more of the wall than the artwork does.
It's particularly impressive when the picture is fifteen feet by twenty...
Complain about this comment
Well I think I might be prepared to pay NOT to have any of these in my living room. Actually I might reclassify our living room as an installation itself. That way I won't need to tidy up when the estate agent brings people around. What do you think? Could I get away with it?
Complain about this comment
annasee @ 14, stamp your feet and shout 'shan't clear up and you can't make me, so there!', and it could even be Performance Art, deeply significant of the modern rejection of housework as unworthy use of talent.
Complain about this comment
Appy - the man holding the microphone in the first picture *IS* Nigel.
Quite handsome though, isn't he? - you say?
Appy,
Clearly,
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?
I just happen to be gods gift to men - however, unfortunately I don't have much of an art collection ;-) and am perhaps sounding a little Frank Fieldish? but
Stick with the Eddie images Appy :-)
Complain about this comment
The first picture (of Nigel) should obviously win the prize....if not then Mr. Turner will be turnin' even faster in his tomb.
Complain about this comment
Careful Chris (15). That might give mpb ideas!
H.
Complain about this comment
Yesterday I knocked over a cup of tea in the bedroom. Pity no-one was there to record it...
Complain about this comment
Emotional response: I like the diving suit one but Nigel should be sitting on one of the chairs with those staring eyes of his. Perhaps he could be persuaded to do an hour a day.
Intellectual response: The semiotics of a woman brushing a cup from the table; a plastic cat in the spotlight; diver waiting for an audience; and semi-naked plastic women need to be explored in detail. Clearly, the woman at the table is dismissing the stultifying ritual of her life and craves escape with a cartoon cat to the very depths of the ocean where, if she can find the answer to the riddle posed in the earphones, she may proceed to the nirvana of the white room and free herself from her constraints and become truly, deeply plastic.
Complain about this comment
Rubbish!
Complain about this comment
Regarding photography in public - for the police to overly pester people taking photos of buses etc is as mad as the mania whipped up a few years ago to ban parents photographing their own children at school plays etc.
Fortunately the real "public" as opposed to the media / government's version have voted with their feet and now most schools ask, prior to the start of any performance, whether there are any parents who actually object. In my experience no-one ever does, thereby allowing a common sense approach to prevail.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS