Turner Prize prize

I was at the Turner Prize prize-giving (do you say prize twice?) on Monday. The line up this year was very good but as always with the prize the difficulty of showing it becomes apparent in the spaces. Four very different artists = four very different rooms. Simon Starling rightly won I think, looking a bit sheepish and feeling 'doubly-lucky' as he collected his large cheque (in amount, not physical size unfortunately. I think it would be better for the TV coverage if Nick Serota presented the winner with a glitzy giant cardboard cheque, children-in-need-style).

Watching the paparazzi phtotograph him afterwards in the winners room was pretty eye-opening as well. Apart from being a bunch of sexist, childish idiots it was amazing to witness the level of ignoranace as to why they were actually there - "this is the Tate right?" and "what's the prize awarded for again?". One of them actually stomped his feet as he left the room just to piss off Channel 4 who were recording an interview at the time. Still the interview consisted mostly of "so what would you say to people who think it is just a shed...?. So nothing very revelatory was missed.

This year was doubly-lucky for the media as well, as they could go down either the 'it's ONLY a Shed!!' route or the 'SHOCK! A painter in the line up!' route. The Guardian has a quick round-up of the not-so apoplectic reaction this year. It's also heartening to see Toulouse Le Plot staying on as Arts Editor at the Sun after being parachuted in to review Degas, Sickert and Toulouse Lautrec at such short notice earlier this year.