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Now you see it. Martin Creed inside the light switching on and off installation that won this year's Turner Prize.
Photo:Reuters
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Minimalist artist Martin Creed won the Turner Prize last night and decided the award was not as stupid as he once thought.
Creed, best known for exhibiting a lump of Blu-Tack and a sheet of paper crumpled into a ball, was awarded the £20,000 prize for his installation of a light switching on and off.
The award is regularly derided for focusing on avant-garde art rather than more conventional forms. Critics usually point to the absence of painters and not one was shortlisted among the four nominees this year.
For his display at this year's Turner exhibition, Creed has shown nothing but an empty gallery space with the lights switching on and off every five seconds.
Speaking after his win, Creed admitted he had initially seen the Turner as "just a stupid prize". But he then became drawn into the whole event. Nonetheless, he said: "It doesn't make it a better piece of work just because it wins a prize."
Judges praised the display's "strength, rigour, wit and sensitivity to the site" - and Creed's "audacity" in presenting just a single work. The jury called his artworks "engaging, wide-ranging and fresh".
But Creed was unable to offer an explanation behind his light-flicking Turner exhibit. "I think people can make of it what they like. I don't think it is for me to explain it," he said.
Pop superstar Madonna added more controversy when she swore on live television before the 9 p.m. watershed as she presented Creed with the prize at the awards ceremony at the Tate Britain gallery in Pimlico, central London.