Scottish artist Jasleen Kaur has won the Turner Prize for her solo exhibition Alter Altar, which includes an installation of a car with a giant doily on it.
Happy Valley actor James Norton announced the winner in a ceremony held at Tate Britain on Tuesday evening.
The five jury members chose Kaur for “her ability to gather different voices through unexpected and playful combinations of material, from Irn-Bru to family photographs and a vintage Ford Escort, locating moments of resilience and possibility”.
Kaur, who was born in Glasgow but lives and works in London, used her speech to advocate for the people in Palestine.
The 38-year-old said she wanted to “echo the calls of the protesters outside” who had gathered after an open letter urged the Tate to cut ties with “organisations complicit in what the UN and ICJ are finally getting closer to saying is a genocide of the Palestinian people”.
“This is not a radical demand,” Kaur said on stage.
“This should not risk an artist’s career or safety. We’re trying to build consensus that the ties to these organisations are unethical, just as artists did with Sackler,” she said, referencing the family linked to the opioid epidemic.
“I’ve been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life we are shut down.
“I want the separation between the expression of politics in the gallery and the practice of politics in life to disappear.
“I want the institution to understand that if you want us inside, you need to listen to us outside.”
Kaur concluded her speech by calling for a ceasefire, adding: “Free Palestine.”
BBC reporter Katie Razzall had to apologise to viewers after Kaur used a swear word in her speech.
The artist was nominated for an exhibition that was held at the Tramway in her home city last year.
The display, a series of installations exploring religious identities, politics and history, makes heavy use of different sounds, embedded into the exhibition by way of worship bells, Sufi Islamic devotional music, Indian harmonium, and pop tracks.
This year the arts prize, named after British painter JMW Turner, which awards £25,000 to its winner, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Established in 1984, the prize is awarded each year to a British artist for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work.
Previous recipients include sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor (1991), artist Damien Hirst (1995), and filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen (1999).
In 2025, the prize will be presented in Bradford at Cartwright Hall art gallery, marking the 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth.
The exhibition of the four shortlisted artists – Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Delaine Le Bas, and Kaur – is at Tate Britain until February 16 2025.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel