Graduate’s ‘medieval Punch and Judy’ puppet film wins Catlin Art Prize 2016

Goldsmiths, University of London graduate and former boxer Christopher Gray has been awarded the prestigious Catlin Art Prize 2016 for his “engaging and original” animated film with violent puppetry.

Gray, and Goldsmiths Department of Art alumni Riikka Hyvönen, Victor Saemundur and Thor Helgason, were among the 30 most promising talents chosen for this year’s XL Catlin Art Guide: a showcase of the art world’s rising stars which acts as a longlist for the XL Catlin Art Prize.

Those shortlisted are considered to be producing work of an outstanding quality, which demonstrates their capacity to make a significant mark in the art world during the next decade.

Justin Hammond, curator of the prize said: “Imagine a medieval Punch and Judy starring in a video nasty and you’re halfway to Christopher Gray’s Death by Chair.”

After receiving the £5,000 prize at a private ceremony on Tuesday 17 May, Gray commented: "I feel overwhelmed with happiness right now and amazed that I’ve won the prize… it’s built up my confidence as an artist.

"The work I do is quite controversial and to get this support is a really big thing. This piece is to do with fictional violence and I have been looking in mainstream cinema and how it’s quite prolific.

"Society to a large extent has become de-sensitised to violence.  Once you put violence in a different context, you become sensitive to it again."

This year's judges were artist and former Turner Prize nominee Mark Titchner; Senior Curator of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Helen Pheby; and Vanessa Carlos, founder and director of Carlos/Ishikawa.

Helen Pheby says: "Christopher Gray’s video is powerful and affecting. It’s brilliantly conceived and realised, triggering questions around the brutal and brutalised. We were really impressed by the quality and diversity in this year’s prize. It didn’t make for easy judging, but it’s an excellent signifier of how creative practice is thriving in the UK. On the evidence of this work, all of the shortlisted artists are definitely ones to watch."

A former boxer, Christopher makes short films – often helped by his daughter - on the subject of fictional violence. He graduated from Goldsmiths in 2015 with a 2:1 BA Fine Art and Art History, taught jointly between the Department of Art and Department of Visual Cultures.

Artlyst reports that his new work will use puppets made from chicken skins to realistically replicate human flesh.