Turner Prize Nominees 2014

The Turner Prize celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and is awarded to a British or British-based artist under fifty for outstanding work in the previous 12 months.
The four shortlisted artists who are competing for the £25,000 controversial but prestigious award are; Duncan Campbell, James Richards, Ciara Phillips and Tris Vonna-Michell.
Duncan Campbell, Dublin-born and Glasgow-based, is best known for his films, which weave fact and fiction to present portraits of provocative subjects, such as the Republican activist Bernadette Devlin and the carmaker John DeLorean. He is nominated for his film ‘It For Others’
Ciara Phillips employs screenprinting, textile techniques and wall painting to create context-specific installations. Exploring the languages of material, method and process in relation to forms of written and visual language, Ciara works individually and collaboratively to realize her projects.

London-based artist James Richards draws from a broad range of easily accessible images: online clips, other artists’ films, as well as classic features culled from a variety of disparate sources Continuing in the long tradition of remixing appropriated material Richards’ carefully constructed film installations move past Scratch video methodology to involve sculptural and curatorial considerations.

Tris Vonna-Michell stages installations and performs narrative structures using spoken word, sound compositions, and photography. His narratives are born of historical research and social observation, filtered through personal anecdotes. Vonna-Michell’s works extend over several years as context-specific iterations develop with each exhibition, acknowledging how the perception of historical material is affected by the conditions of the present. His nomination is for an installation at the Jan Mot gallery in Brussels that used two slide projections and an audio narration relating to his mother’s childhood in Berlin.
The following is a rather fitting comment posted on the BBC News thread;
“Pictures of nothing”, “comparatively, blots”, “the contents of a spittoon”: all criticism of Turner himself during his lifetime. Creativity means trying to do things differently, which inevitably won’t be to everyone’s taste. There’s actually something comforting about the fact that art still outrages the public, as it has from Michelangelo to Picasso, and will do as long as it remains original.
How familiar are you with the shortlisted artists? Do you have a favourite? If so, why?