Turner Prize

I honestly feel that the Turner Prize went to the right candidate this past year. In one of the last rooms of the exhibit, the text on the wall stated that the award was not given in order to immortalize an artist but to bring light to new developments in art... And since Susan Philipsz' work is unlike anything I've ever 'heard' before [and since she was the first sound installation artist to be nominated for the award], I believe I would definitely grant her the Turner Prize award. Being a musician most of my life, I like to explore how sound and music affects our world in different ways, and I think that Philipsz succeeds in her own exploration of the same thing. As I stood in the room in which Lowlands Away was playing, I felt a sense of loneliness, heaviness, and wistfulness floating in the room. I realized that the 'heaviness' and 'loneliness' was brought about by Philipsz' low and mellow voice and the echoes of her voice relayed the 'wistfulness'. Although the room felt heavy and full, there was still a sense of emptiness that the content of the lyrics brought about.

The text on the wall says that Philipsz was exploring how sound fills and forms a space, and I think that she is very successful in relaying and achieving exactly what she meant to.