Turner Prize Win For RCA Alumna
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User Group Disco, Elizabeth Price
© Copyright Elizabeth Price, courtesy MOTInternational, LondonUser Group Disco, Elizabeth Price
© Copyright Elizabeth Price, courtesy MOTInternational, London
4 December 2012 – RCA alumna Elizabeth Price is the 'surprise' winner of this year's Turner Prize, one of the world's most prestigious art prizes.
The Bradford-born artist beat Paul Noble, whose illustrative style made him the bookmakers' favourite, fellow RCA alumna (MA Painting 2002) Spartacus Chetwynd, and video artist Luke Fowler.
Price, who graduated with an MA Constructed Textiles from the Royal College of Art in 1991, and worked as a tutor in the School of Fine Art between 2007-11, took the honour and £25,000 prize money for The Woolworths Choir of 1979, _2012. The _20-minute film fuses archive images of ecclesiastical architecture, a 1960s girl band performance and a devastating furniture store blaze that kickstarted change in UK fire law with text and music to explore our relationship to consumer culture.
During her acceptance speech, Price championed art education and defended its positioning at a time when the Government is making plans to exclude the arts from an English Baccalaureate in 2017.
The Turner prize is awarded to a British or overseas artist working in the UK under 50, for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of work in the preceding 12 months. Previous RCA alumni to have been nominated for the Turner Prize include Tracey Emin and the Chapman Brothers.