The Turner Prize exhibition at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art presents a fiercely competitive shortlist featuring artists Kira Freije, Simeon Barclay, Marguerite Humeau, and Tanoa Sasraku, according to an art review published by The Guardian. The show stands out for its high stakes, distinct room installations, and strong critical reactions, anchored by Freije’s 33 lifesize steampunk cyborg sculptures.
Kira Freije Leads the Shortlist With Steampunk Cyborgs
Kira Freije exhibits 33 lifesize statues of tragicomic steampunk cyborgs separated on their own floor at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, as detailed in The Guardian’s review. The physical separation was necessitated by a fine watery mist in her installation that could damage fragile materials in other rooms. Her figures feature hollow frames for bodies and hard metal replacements for flesh, bone, and soul, paired with life-cast faces that solicit empathy.
Visitors walk among the vaporous apocalyptic wasteland to gaze at anguished visages or fallen figures clutching steel ankles. The installation incorporates rusty buckets of fetid liquid and a mangy sofa beneath a bronze steamy glow. As noted in the review, the cyborgs touch one another tenderly and cuddle steel-framed pets, projecting a world where humanity hangs on as a ghost in the machine and love remains the sole surviving matter.
Simeon Barclay and Marguerite Humeau Bring Dramatic Tableaux
Simeon Barclay constructs a dramatic, immersive theatre-style room that leads visitors past giant photographs of a man reading a tabloid newspaper bearing the headline "Leave 'em to die," a glowing melancholy scenery, and a labyrinth beneath a neon sign. A recorded voice by Barclay declaims poetry denouncing a northern, working-class man who lost his way in hardened, selfish masculinity. The review describes the experience as visceral and haunting, though noting the connections between its disparate elements remain loose.
Marguerite Humeau fills her space with baroque forms, a psychedelic soundtrack of high-pitched warbles, heartbeat pulses, and elephantine bellows, and sprawling sculptures like The Holder of Wasp Venom. That specific sculpture contains natural beeswax, microcrystalline wax, pigments, 150-year-old walnut wood with an unknown cause of death, handblown glass, and wasp venom. While the reviewer characterizes Humeau’s work as zero-content form resembling a stack of giant biscuits lacking the felt-like presence of Joseph Beuys’s art, the accompanying soundscape creates an uncanny, psychedelic atmosphere.
Tanoa Sasraku Rounds Out the Shortlist With Oil Industry Protest
Tanoa Sasraku exhibits a big, brown abstract agglomeration of textures hanging at one end of her room, alongside a tabletop covered in glass paperweights holding tiny bulbous bottles and bubbles of dark viscous liquid. The review notes that these elements represent a protest against the big oil industry. However, the tininess of the objects and their placement at the edges of a space-hogging installation preclude deep emotional or intellectual impact beyond an initial realization of the artist’s theme, making her the least giving artist on the shortlist.
Did you know? Kira Freije’s installation was housed on a separate floor because the fine watery mist she uses could potentially damage the fragile materials in the other shortlisted artists’ exhibits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the current Turner Prize exhibition hosted?
The exhibition is hosted at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.
Which artists are shortlisted for the Turner Prize in this show?
The shortlist features Kira Freije, Simeon Barclay, Marguerite Humeau, and Tanoa Sasraku.
What materials are used in Marguerite Humeau’s sculpture?
Her sprawling sculpture The Holder of Wasp Venom contains natural beeswax, microcrystalline wax, pigments, 150-year-old walnut wood, handblown glass, and wasp venom.
What are your thoughts on this year’s Turner Prize shortlist? Do you agree with the standout favorite, or does another artist deserve the win? Leave a comment below and share your perspective.