Brian Haw, taken by Tommy Forbes.

The UK’s Turner Prize for modern art has a history or rather controvertial pieces and outspoken critics. This year one of the shortlisted artists combines these two aspects of the prize to produce a piece of installation art that refers to aspects of the UK’s current political climate as well as our conceptions of protest. Mark Wallinger has recreated many of the placards, posters and signs of the peace protestor Brian Haw who has maintained a daily protest opposite the Houses of Parliament since June 2001. The government, long embarassed by the protests tried, in 2005, to pass a law (widely seen as) specifically aimed at Mr Haw.

On a side note, Mr Haw can clearly be a prickly character. Here’s an exchange that accompanies the photo below, which I found on Flickr:

I went to Tate Britain yesterday to see Mark Wallinger’s recreation of Brian Haw’s Parliament Square protest. It’s incredible. Afterwards I thought I’d walk down to the square and see Brian for myself. He was making a cup of tea and when I asked him if I could please take a photo he didn’t seem to mind. . . . until that is I decided it might be a good time to make polite chit chat . . . here’s how it went . . . .

Tommy: “How are you today?”

Brian Haw: “Don’t ask me such fucking stupid questions!”

I apologised and then left. I didn’t think it was that much of a shit question.

What’s interesting about Wallinger’s piece is that his nomination opens the Tate up to criticisms of again producing art that isn’t really art. He may be making a social commentary about the works of Haw, but does a subject become ‘art’ by simply moving from its usual environment? This is especially relevant when it is being moved only a couple of hundred metres from outside the Houses of Parliament to within the confines of the Tate Gallery. It’s hardly original work. Haw’s work is original, while Wallinger’s comes across as simply a pale representation others’s passion. The photo right displays this perfectly for me. While Haw’s face has elements of peace, hope, cheekiness, and determination, Wallinger’s look is that of utter boredom. You can’t be bored at a protest. While Haw has to daily live with the threat of police harassment and trouble-makers from the general public Wallinger can sit in safety and paint a line along the floor of his exhibition space demarkating the scope of the law barring ‘unauthorised protests’ within one mile of Parliament. [see 'Make Peace Not War' on Flickr]

Christoph Grunenberg, the director of Tate Liverpool, where the prize will be presented, added that the jury, of which he is chair, said: “It was not our intention to set out a political message. It was just interesting that we discovered this pattern which seemed to emerge. Only after the jury had met and discussed the works did we realise there was a strong concentration of political work and work about religious beliefs and spirituality.

“It’s an obvious truth, but works of art are actually political acts and artists act as mediators. If you look at the artists this year, there is a spectrum of overtly political works such as Wallinger’s and pieces that are about the individual’s relationship to the world they live in.”
The Independent

The debate about the value of ‘conceptual art’ is openly acknowledged by the Tate, addressed on their Turner Prize website by [in part]:

‘Conceptual art’ is also used to label work which makes us think or challenges our assumptions about what art is or should be. So is the real problem that contemporary art does not fit neatly into people’s ideas of what art should look like (something based on craft and skill, that can be hung neatly in their living room perhaps?) and so is dismissed as conceptual, and by association not worth the effort? Rather than reacting against the conceptual and the contemporary with a knee-jerk reaction of ‘But is it art?’, we should celebrate the possibilities that have been opened up so that artists – and viewers – can tackle ideas and issues and engage in debate. Is it not better, and more exciting, to leave preconceptions behind and look with a fresh eye and an open mind? Turner Prize: Conceptual Art – ‘cold, mechanical, conceptual bullshit’

My preferred artist from the shortlist would be Zarina Bhimji whose work, for me, is evocative of political upheaval and strife and difficulty by maintains an interpretative element that seems to be lacking in Wallinger’s work.

further reading
Guardian Turner Prize 2007 Photo Gallery
Independent: Art takes back seat as politics and religion dominate Turner shortlist
Brian Haw online: parliament-square.org.uk
Indymedia – Parliament Sq. Protest Trashed by Police 8-23/05-06

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