 | London-based artist Christina Mackie is on the 2005 shortlist. Shown here is her installation Interzone, 2002 |
The Beck's Futures contemporary art prize at the ICA, the UK's largest, richest art award not called Turner.
1.Beck's Futures was set up in 2000 as an idiosyncratic and independent alternative to the 'institutional dogmatism' of the elitist Turner Prize. It focuses on artists who are at a crucial, early stage in their development. Usually eight artists are chosen for the shortlist, but this year there are six, ostensibly to give the nominees more gallery space. | 2. In total £65,000 is at stake, £40,000 of which will be shared among all the shortlisted artists with an additional £20,000 going to the overall winner. |
 3. In parallel to the main prize there is a Film and Video Prize, open to final year and post-graduate students, which this year is being selected by filmmaker Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar) and photographer Rankin, co-founder and creative director of Dazed & Confused magazine.
Established in 1999, this prize is worth a total of £5,000 and gives the artists involved the opportunity to have their work exhibited at the ICA, and to win the top prize of £2,000. 4. Last year, Doug Fishbone, a post-graduate student at Goldsmith's College, won the Student Prize for Film and Video for The Ugly American, his wry take on contemporary America. Since winning he has screened work in the Netherlands, Spain, USA, and Germany, and has participated in numerous UK group shows, notably at the Curzon Soho and Zoo Art Fair. His most recent major non-video project was an installation of 30,000 bananas in Trafalgar Square, in October 2004. More... |
 | David Sherry's 2003 video submission featured the artist sewing wood to the soles of his feet |
5. Among the works in Beck's Futures 2003 was Irish performance artist David Sherry's video, Stitching, in which he apparently sews two planks of wood to the soles of his feet. More... In another performance Sherry carried a bucket of water around for a week and spent another week avoiding eye contact with anyone. He also attended a series of job interviews in the character of a "serial psycho interviewee".
| 6. In the same year Glasgow-based artist and nominee, Lucy Skaer, conned the Earl of Glasgow into ceremonially laying a paving slab she made - after levering a perfectly good one out of the city's Buchanan Street with a crowbar. |
 | Francis Upritchard's 2003 sculpture, Save Yourself, went on to be exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery |
7. Another 2003 notable was New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard's one-eyed, fag packet-holding mummy sculpture, Save Yourself, which moaned and vibrated when people went near it. Upritchard went on to exhibit as part of the New Blood show at the Saatchi Gallery as well as becoming Camden Arts Centre's Artist in Residence in 2004. | 8. For last year's show Tonica Lemos Auad made a series of sculptured animals from carpet-fluff called Fleeting Luck, and Susan Philipsz sang Radiohead's Airbag to shoppers in Tesco Metro, Bethnal Green, over the PA system and called the performance Filter. |
9. Previous celebrity award presenters on prize-giving night have included Helena Christensen and Keith Allen, while Zadie Smith, Gary Hume, film director John Maybury (Love is the Devil) and Marianne Faithfull have spent time in the judges' chair.
10. 2005's selection panel includes artists Wolfgang Tillmans and Cerith Wyn Evans, and the nominees were drawn from "artists who refused to sit neatly in any one category, who displayed a genuine, even eccentric independence and eclecticism". Their work, now on show at the ICA until 15 May, includes a performance piece featuring Jabba The Hutt of Star Wars fame, a film about maverick psychoanalyst RD Laing, and an installation which includes a bespoke perfume. Carol Murphy 17 March 05 |
See also: Beck's Futures 2005 finalists in pictures See also: Glasgow artist Toby Paterson on winning the Beck's Futures prize
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