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Helen Marten claims 2016 Turner Prize

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The winner of the ever controversial Turner Prize was announced yesterday (December 5), with 31-year-old painter and sculptor Helen Marten claiming the 2016 prize. The youngest of the four shortlisted artists, Marten, who graduated from Oxford’s Ruskin School of Drawing, was announced as the winner at a ceremony at Tate Britain in London. It is the second major prize in the space of a month for Marten, who also recently won the inaugural Hepworth Prize. On accepting that award, she pledged to share the £30,000 prize with her four fellow nominees, because she believes that the hierarchical position of art prizes is flawed. It remains to be seen whether or not she'll do likewise with the £25,000 earned from her Turner Prize win, though each of the runner ups has been given £5,000, so maybe she'll be content with that.

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Accepting her prize from poet Ben Okri, Marten said she wasn't expecting to win and that she could not think of “a more brilliant and exciting shortlist of artists to be part of.” Marten, who is originally from Macclesfield but now lives in London, faced competition from Anthea Hamilton, Michael Dean and Josephine Pryde for the prize, which has Britain's leading contemporary art award given to an artist under the age of 50 since 1984, and aims to “promote public debate around new developments in contemporary art.” Marten was nominated for projects including Lunar Nibs at the 56th Venice Biennale and her solo exhibition Eucalyptus Let Us In at Greene Naftali in New York. The jury said of her work: “It is is outstanding for its extraordinary range of materials and form with poetic and enigmatic qualities, which reflect the complexities and challenges of being in the world today.” They felt that Marten herself is “making an exceptional contribution to the continuing development of contemporary visual art.”

Marten encourages us to look very closely at the items she makes and the materials she uses, and to reconsider the images and objects we surround ourselves with”

For her Turner prize exhibition Marten used materials and objects that include cotton buds, bicycle chains, shells, marbles, snooker chalk, fish skins and eggs, among much else. Marten had been many people’s favourite to win the prize and it caps an extraordinary year following the aforementioned Hepworth win and a major show at London’s Serpentine Gallery. Her work includes a collection of sculptural installations involving assortments of found and fabricated objects; a darkly industrial doll’s house, what appears on first glance to be a sea creature built up of found objects, and all manner of assorted bits and bobs that, when taken individually mean nothing, but, when taken as a whole, paint a pretty darkly compelling picture that is almost defiantly modern. This is, of course, wilfully erudite and philosophical work that will frankly baffle and bemuse almost anyone who doesn't have an art degree or read philosophy for fun, but it is at least a little more subtle than some of the other shortlisted entrees.

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I'm referring, of course, to the gigantic bronzed arse from Anthea Hamilton, which could arguably sum up 2016 quite fittingly, but could also be perceived as being a little on the nose. In the other corner was Michael Dean, 39, whose gritty and messy work was centred around a huge mound of loose change, totalling exactly £20,436; the minimum designated by the government for a family of four to live on. Josephine Pryde, meanwhile, displayed photographic portraits of hands and Ikea kitchen counter tops, which had been left out in the sun. In the middle of the gallery was a model train which people at other shows were able to ride. Whether you think the right artist won is a point of contention (it always is), but most of us can surely all agree that the idea of installing sofas outside the show for people to chat and taking photographs and video of the works was a great idea, as it really inspires conversation, which is exactly what art should do! The prize was back in London this year after last year’s sojourn to Glasgow, where a collective of young architects named Assemble, won. Next year it will be at Hull’s Ferens art gallery as part of the UK city of culture celebrations.

Helen Marten's collage-like gatherings of objects and images have a playful intent, creating poetic visual puzzles that seem to invite us into a game or riddle”

The prize's jury was chaired by Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, who believes Marten's work was chosen due to its “incredible virtuosity.” He explained: “ She's like a kind of poet when it comes to using materials, images and found objects. The work is endlessly intriguing. It never settles at one meaning; it's very, very open-ended and has multiple narratives. It suggests a world in flux.” He added that, whilst he felt it had been a strong exhibition overall, he believed that Marten's work came out on top because he revealed “how visual images, not just words, can be made to signify, to mean things.” He added: “It doesn't present you with an easy, simple, static view of itself. The work is like reading very rich, very enjoyable, very elusive, quite enigmatic poetry rather than a very clear report on what happened in a newspaper. I think the thing is to enjoy it for its visual qualities, its physical qualities, and get lost in the game of meaning and games of composition that it offers up.” This year’s judging panel, which took two and half hours to agree a winner, also included Michelle Cotton, director of Bonner Kunstverein in Bonn, Germany; curator Tamsin Dillon; Beatrix Ruf, director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; and Simon Wallis, director of the Hepworth Wakefield.

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If you want to judge her contributions for yourselves, Marten's installations, as well as those by her fellow shortlisted nominees, are currently being shown at the Tate as part of the Turner Prize exhibition, which runs until January.

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Anthea Hamilton

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Josephine Pryde

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Michael Dean

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK.

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