Turner Prize winner set to be announced in Glasgow

Exhibit titled Infrastruktur by Turner Prize 2015 nominee Nicole Wermers at Tramway in Glasgow. Picture: PA

Work to transform part of the Toxteth estate in Liverpool is in the running for the annual award, along with an operatic performance, a study room designed to question issues around mental health, and a series of chairs with fur coats sewn on top.

Four artists - Assemble, Bonnie Camplin, Janice Kerbel and Nicole Wermers - have been short-listed for the prestigious £25,000 prize and their work has been displayed in the Tramway, Glasgow, as the exhibition moved north of the border for the first time.

Assemble - a loose-knit collective of about 16 people under 30 - are favourites to win for their Granby Four Streets project.

Local residents fought plans to demolish a series of houses that had fallen into disrepair and invited Assemble to help the community regenerate the housing and public spaces ‘’from the ground up’’.

• READ MORE: Art review: Turner Prize 2015, Glasgow

London-based Assemble displayed examples of their work in Granby Four Streets at the Tramway - including fire places, tables and chairs - and plan to sell them to fund the continuing community rebuild.

The Turner Prize, now in its 31st year, has a reputation for controversy, with previous winners including Martin Creed’s light going on and off and Grayson Perry’s pots tackling subjects like death and child abuse.

This year, Camplin is in the running for The Military Industrial Complex - a study room ‘’drawing from physics, philosophy, psychology, witchcraft, quantum theory and warfare’’ on issues around mental health.

Her exhibition includes large TVs, books and a photocopier spread across a room with the public encouraged to make copies of books they are interested in.

Kerbel is nominated for her operatic performance work Doug, made up of nine songs sung by six voices.

Wermers’s Infrastruktur contains a series of chairs with fur coats stitched on top said to allude to themes of ‘’lifestyle, class, consumption and control’’.

The modern art prize, which was won last year by Duncan Campbell for his series of films called It For Others, is held outside London every other year.

Glasgow beat off competition from Nottingham, Walsall and Manchester to stage the exhibition, and Tramway director Sarah Munro is delighted to host it in the city.

She said: ‘’There’s a real strong artistic community in Glasgow and I think this is a project that allows us to share that sense of recognition.’’

The award will be presented by Kim Gordon, a founding member of the band Sonic Youth.

• The Turner Prize 2015 exhibition runs to January 17 at the Tramway.

NOMINEES FOR THE 2015 TURNER PRIZE

The artists in the running for the 2015 Turner Prize are:

Assemble - The collective of young artists, designers, craftsmen and architects have been nominated for their Granby Four Streets project in Liverpool. Working with local residents, they redeveloped a row of council houses that had fallen into disrepair, allowing the local community to directly help in the area’s regeneration. At Tramway, Assemble presented A Showroom for Granby Workshop which included items such as lamps, fireplaces and doorknobs that had been created from materials recycled from the Granby.

Bonnie Camplin - Her work, The Military Industrial Complex, takes the form of a study room “drawing from physics, philosophy, psychology, witchcraft, quantum theory and warfare’’ on issues around mental health. It is said to explore what “consensus reality” is and how it is formed. The exhibition includes large TVs, books and a photocopier spread across a room with the public encouraged to make copies of books they are interested in.

Janice Kerbel - Nominated for her operatic performance work Doug, made up of nine songs sung by six voices. It was initially commissioned by The Common Guild at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow and is said to call on the history of physical comedy, animated cartoons, narrative ballad and operatic librettos.

Nicole Wermers - Infrastruktur contains a series of chairs with fur coats stitched on top said to allude to themes of ‘’lifestyle, class, consumption and control’’. The artist is known for sculptures, collages and installations, which explore the appropriation of art and design within consumer culture.