THE extraordinarily successful relationship between Glasgow School of Art (GSA) and the Turner Prize continues this year with the announcement Rosalind Nashashibi is among the four artists shortlisted for this most prestigious of awards.
Nashashibi, who gained a Master of Fine Arts from the GSA in 2000, has been nominated for her solo exhibition On This Island, which included a film investigating everyday life in Gaza, and for her participation in Documenta, a major exhibition of contemporary art originating in Germany and now showing also in Athens.
The Turner jury was impressed by the “depth and maturity” of her work, which examines themes of exile, confinement, surveillance and the everyday documented in its particular environment. She was born in Croydon, South London, to a Palestinian father and Irish mother. At 43, she is the youngest of the contenders, with much of the focus on this year’s distinctly multi-cultural shortlist being on the candidate’s ages: the under-50 age limit has been scrapped, allowing 62-year-old Lubaina Himid on the shortlist, along with another major black British artist Hurvin Anderson, aged 52. The quartet is completed by Andrea Buttner, 45, a German artist based in London and Berlin.
But it is Glasgow that frequently steals the show when it comes to the Turner. The GSA has supplied no fewer than four prize winners since 2005, and many more graduates have been shortlisted for the frequently controversial competition over the years.
Inevitably, observers have searched for Glasgow’s secret ingredient. Most will attribute it to hard work, attention to detail, a focus on social engagement and, of course, the city itself. Leading German art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist has referred to the “Glasgow miracle”. Others have only half-seriously referenced football and “something in the ice cream”.
Whatever the case, we are happy to wish all four contenders for the prize the best of luck, while surreptitiously crossing our fingers for Nashashibi when the winner is declared in December.
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