Turner Prize in Eastbourne: who are the hopefuls?

As Joe Hill, director and CEO Towner Eastbourne, says: “The great point about the Turner Prize is that you get a number of bites of the cherry. You get the opening furore and then you get all the excitement around the announcement of the award in December. And then you have got the exhibition continuing until Easter next year.”

The Turner Prize 2023, the world’s leading prize for contemporary art, is beautifully timed for Towner Eastbourne as the centrepiece of its centenary celebrations. One of the best-known prizes for the visual arts in the world, the Turner Prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. The announcement of the winner will take place on December 5. The winner will be awarded £25,000 with £10,000 to the other shortlisted artists. The four artists in the running are are Jesse Darling, Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker.

Jesse Darling. Nominated for his solo exhibitions No Medals, No Ribbons at Modern Art Oxford and Enclosures at Camden Art Centre. Darling’s work encompasses sculptures and installations which evoke the vulnerability of the human body and the precariousness of power structures. The jury was struck by Darling’s ability to manipulate materials in ways that skillfully express the messy reality of life. They felt that these exhibitions revealed the breadth and integrity of Darling’s practice, exposing the world’s underlying fragility.

Ghislaine Leung. Nominated for her solo exhibition Fountains at Simian, Copenhagen. Leung’s work takes the form of ‘scores’ – sets of instructions which test the boundaries of the gallery space. Baby monitors, child safety gates, inflatable structures, toys, and water fountains are used to turn the exhibition structure on its head, asking questions about time, leisure and labour. The jury particularly commended the warm, humorous, and transcendental qualities that lay behind the sleek aesthetic and conceptual nature of Leung’s work.

Rory Pilgrim. Nominated for the commission RAFTS at Serpentine and Barking Town Hall and a live performance of the work at Cadogan Hall, London. Pilgrim’s work interweaves stories, poems, music and film, created in collaboration with local communities in the borough of Barking and Dagenham, to reflect on times of change and struggle during the pandemic.

Barbara Walker. Nominated for her presentation entitled Burden of Proof at Sharjah Biennial 15. With a practice that interrogates past and present issues of racial identity, exclusion and power, Walker’s presentation explores the impact of the Windrush scandal, underlaying figurative drawn portraits with facsimiles of the documentation these individuals had to produce to prove their right to remain. The jury applauded Walker’s ability to use portraits of monumental scale to tell stories of a similarly monumental nature whilst maintaining a profound tenderness and intimacy.​

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