CNN –
Artist Jesse Darling is the latest recipient of the Turner Prize, the UK’s highest honor for artists, worth £25,000 ($31,500) annually. The announcement was made on Tuesday at an evening ceremony in Eastbourne, southeast England.
Darling is a 41-year-old Oxford-born, Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, video, drawing and performance. Last year he also published a poetry collection called “Virgins.” His Turner Prize-winning exhibition is an installation that places the viewer in a customized environment reminiscent of chaotic city streets and industrial barriers.
Barbed wire frames the entrance to a gallery space where anthropomorphized crowd control fences stomp across the floor and climb the walls. Tattered patchwork Union Jack flags hang from bent and twisted poles, and railroad tracks crash into a wall; Disturbing props like crutches, dusty stacks of ring binders, and chunks of concrete are also placed throughout. The installation consists of both new and previous works by the artist and “conveys a familiar yet demented world,” according to a press release. “By evoking societal collapse, his talk confounds perceived notions of work, class, Britishness and power.”
Angus Mill
Darling’s installation shows British society in disarray and deals with themes of power and exclusion.
Angus Mill
According to a Turner Prize press release, “Darling’s winning exhibition conveys a familiar yet demented world.”
Darling was nominated alongside fellow artists Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker, who all exhibited installations for the award. (All her work is on display at Towner Eastbourne Art Gallery until April 14, 2024.)
The Turner Prize, named after the 19th century painter JMW Turner, is awarded each year to an exemplary artist born or based in the United Kingdom and is based on a presentation of works exhibited in the previous year. Darling was nominated for his solo exhibitions No Medals, No Ribbons at Modern Art Oxford and Enclosures at Camden Art Centre.
Last year’s award went to sculptor Veronica Ryan. Previous winners have included Damien Hirst, Gillian Wearing, Gilbert & George, Anish Kapoor, Wolfgang Tillmans and Steve McQueen. Next year the prize will celebrate its 40th anniversary.