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Installation view of DC Semiramis 2019, Turner Prize 2019 at Turner Contemporary, Tai Shani
Photographer: David LeveneInstallation view of DC Semiramis 2019, Turner Prize 2019 at Turner Contemporary, Tai Shani
Photographer: David Levene -
Installation view of surge (social cataracts), 2019, Turner Prize at Turner Contemporary, Oscar Murillo
Photographer: David LeveneInstallation view of surge (social cataracts), 2019, Turner Prize at Turner Contemporary, Oscar Murillo
Photographer: David Levene -
Shouting in Whispers, 2017, Turner Prize 2019 at Turner Contemporary, Helen Cammock
Photographer: David LeveneShouting in Whispers, 2017, Turner Prize 2019 at Turner Contemporary, Helen Cammock
Photographer: David Levene
Turner Prize 2019 – RCA staff and alumni create bold commentary on turbulent times
The 2019 Turner Prize nominations feature two RCA alumni – Helen Cammock (MA Photography, 2011) and Oscar Murillo (MA Painting, 2012) – alongside current Contemporary Art Practice tutor, Tai Shani. From a futuristic feminist world to archival investigations into past social movements, via a materially rich comment on precarious labour – Cammock, Murillo and Shani each address social and political issues. The artists engage diverse media, from performance and installation to sculpture, moving image, and painting, exemplifying the variety of art practice supported, explored and deconstructed at the RCA.
Read on to find out more about the nominees' work, currently on display at Turner Contemporary in Margate.
Tai Shani, Contemporary Art Practice Tutor
‘Tai is the ultimate in a Contemporary Art Practice tutor, combining critical thinking and a broad approach to art practice, producing artworks that demonstrate a carefully considered relationship to ideas, theories and display.’ – Dr Melanie Jordan, Head of Programme, Contemporary Art Practice RCA

© Tai Shani, courtesy the artist.
Tai Shani has been nominated for her ongoing body of work DC: Semiramis, variations of which were presented at Glasgow International 2018; The Tetley, Leeds; Nottingham Contemporary and the De Le Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea. Noted by the jury for its ability to combine historical texts with contemporary references and issues, DC: Semiramis explores themes of feminism and otherness through a gothic, science-fiction lens.
Shani describes the work as a ‘loose and expanded adaptation’ of Christine de Pizan's pioneering proto-feminist book from 1405, The Book of the City of Ladies. Using film, installation and performance, she has created an allegorical city of women, which she states is ‘for anyone that wants to live outside a white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy’.
Shani is a Tutor for Critical Practice on the RCA's Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) MA programme. Discussing Shani’s nomination, Head of Programme and Reader in Art and the Public Sphere Dr Melanie Jordan, commented:
‘We are very excited to see Tai shortlisted for the Turner Prize, it demonstrates that they know what they are doing! Tai is the ultimate in a Contemporary Art Practice tutor, combining critical thinking and a broad approach to art practice, producing artworks that demonstrate a carefully considered relationship to ideas, theories and display. But more than that, her works are full of humour and wit and are constructed in a way that leaves the viewer wanting more.’
‘Tai’s engagement with performance, text, script and moving image enables her to create works that make you want to keep on watching, listening and reading. Ultimately her works turn performance into the performative and therefore they muck up our expectations by proposing new social relations of art.’

Photographer: David Levene
Oscar Murillo (Painting, 2012)
‘Murillo is not singularly interested in an issue, but the range of his concerns – identity, hybridity, difference, dislocation and decolonisation – are compressed and concentrated in the frenetic energy of a materialist ritual.’ – John Slyce, Senior Tutor, Painting RCA

Photographer: Jungwon Kim
‘Murillo’s paintings are a central component of his expansive practice and form the strong vertebrae of his studio-based production,’ explains MA Painting Senior Tutor John Slyce in Vitamin P3: New Perspectives in Painting (2016). ‘He works additionally with performance, installation, drawing, film and video, although it is primarily through painting that Murillo unpicks concerns with form, materiality and the intricacies of composition.’
‘His paintings absorb, accrue and record a concentration of interests and information compressed in one place [...] Murillo is not singularly interested in an issue, but the range of his concerns – identity, hybridity, difference, dislocation and decolonisation – are compressed and concentrated in the frenetic energy of a materialist ritual.’

Photographer: Stephen White
Helen Cammock (Photography, 2011)
‘Helen's approach to print is exactly the boundary challenging understanding that suits our course identity.’ – Professor Jo Stockham, Head of Programme, Print RCA

Photographer: Magda Stawarska-Beavan
‘Helen's approach to print is exactly the boundary challenging understanding that suits our course identity. She has worked with reference to found images, used postage stamps, screenprints, song, text and image and digital media in all forms. An ability to deal poetically with complex subjects of identity and power relations, her re-writings of history and focus on unheard or overlooked narratives creates space for us all to think anew about history and representation. Her generous and inclusive approach to students, some of whom performed in her work at the Whitechapel Gallery last year, contributes greatly to the education of our students.’

© Courtesy the artist | Photographer: David Levene
The Turner Prize 2019 exhibition is on display at Turner Contemporary, Margate until 12 January 2020.
Find out more about MA programmes in the School of Arts & Humanities and how to apply.