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 beck's futures
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.New art at the ICA. Group shows are often varied affairs and this year’s Beck’s Futures is a pick’n’mix of mixed bags. It ticks lots of boxes: it’s multicultural, diverse and covers pertinent issues such as security, immigration and legal boundaries. It’s a cocktail of relatively innovative, poetic and disarming work, but parts of it verge on being dull, overwrought and obtuse.Although it does try, it suffers from trying too hard in places and not hard enough in others. Some pieces pleasingly hit the middle ground though. Tonico Lemos Auad’s Fleeting Luck carpet-fluff sculptured animals, or Haluk Akakçe’s highly choreographed onedotzero-esque digital film, Illusion Of The First Time, indicate that the future of art might be heading down some interesting paths.  There’s a fine line between subtle and meditative art, such as Ergin Çavusoglu’s Istanbul-based film Downward Straits, and being offered so little to engage with that your natural reaction is to dismiss something as a waste of time. The show hopscotches around that line, but it would be unfair to expect a group show of new art to hang together immaculately. Auad’s Fleeting Luck & Tompkins' No Title Beck’s Futures is the UK’s leading award for new art and, self-consciously, our “most generous” art prize. It’s important and interesting to see work being produced by tomorrow’s potential creative minds. It encourages new faces in their creative endeavours, giving voice to innovation, exploration and contemporary debates. But it’s questionable as to whether Beck’s is representing those people.  Out of the prize’s five-year history, which has showcased over 50 people, it’s hard to spot many, besides David Shrigley and Francis Upritchard (featured in Saatchi’s current New Blood exhibition), who’ve really managed to capitalise on being included. This raises some questions. With only art professionals being able to nominate artists, is the whole spectrum of non-professional art really being represented? Does this system just perpetuate existing fashions and tastes? And with seven of the 10 artists being London-based, do we need to promote art outside the capital more? It’s often easier to knock new and possibly challenging art than it is to support it. But if Beck’s is a snapshot of work that people are making as they enter the professional artworld (most of them are already represented by galleries) then we should take heart. This year’s crop is at least as interesting as much of the art being shown by relatively established names. However, what this says about those artists is another thing altogether...
Rowan Kerek
Beck’s Futures 2004 is at the ICA, London, until 16 May 04 and CCA Glasgow, 12 June - 01 August 04. The winner will be announced 27 April 04.
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