Andrew O'Hara
Artist Charlotte Prodger was presented the 2018 Turner Prize at a ceremony in London on Tuesday for a moving-image exhibition comprised of two short films, "Bridgit" and "Stoneymollan Trail," which was filmed entirely on an iPhone.
Filmed over the course of a year, "Bridgit" is described as an "unexpectedly expansive" work that explores class and gender identity through autobiographical narration, quotes from well-known books and footage captured by iPhone.
The film features scenic shots of the Scottish countryside, a T-shirt haphazardly placed on a radiator, and a kitten playing among other seemingly innocuous imagery, as reported by The Guardian.
Prodger said she chose to film on iPhone "because of that ease of use and the way you can use it while you are going about the world. For me, everything is in there." Prodger travels alone which makes a larger camera problematic.
This was the "most profound use of a device as prosaic as the iPhone camera that we've seen in art to date," said director of Tate Britain, Alex Farquharson, who also chaired the judging panel.
The award — which comes accompanied by a 25,000 pound cash prize — is decided by a jury of four members and goes to an artist for outstanding exhibition or other presentation.
Congratulations to Charlotte Prodger, winner of Britain's prestigious Turner Prize. A first for a film shot on iPhone, and another milestone in the democratization of photography and filmmaking. https://t.co/zlQbelQIPb
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) December 5, 2018
Tim Cook took to Twitter as he often does to congratulate Prodger.
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Charles Martin
Mike Wuerthele
6 Comments
“The Turner Prize 2018 exhibition at Tate Britain is thoroughly consistent. From beginning to end, this soul-crusher of a show is unusually awful.
Consisting only of video art, and weighing in at eight or so hours of nocturnal viewing, the relentlessly bleak display is devoted entirely to evening-class politics. With a show as grim as this, there are no winners, just a sliding scale of awfulness.
The least bad is Charlotte Prodger, whose biographical complaint about the sexual misunderstandings she has faced as a lesbian shelves its narcissism now and then to confront us with a nice image filmed on her iPhone.”
- Waldemar Januszczak, Art Critic Sunday Times
The picture has three women in it. Which one is Charlotte?
I'm big into film. Where might I be able to see her short films?
Bridgit is 32 minutes long, I'd like to watch it. Anyone?
I just hope we never see one made with the iPhone held vertically as so many people do. It would just add legitimacy to the moronic practice.