Goldsmiths art gallery architects win Turner Prize 2015

Assemble, the London based architecture collective chosen to design a new art gallery at Goldsmiths, University of London has been named winner of the Turner Prize 2015.

They are one of three Turner Prize 2015 nominees to have Goldsmiths connections – Bonnie Camplin is a Lecturer in Fine Art in the Department of Art, and Janice Kerbel both a Reader and a Fine Art graduate, having completed her MA with us in 1996.

Seven previous Turner Prize winners and nearly a quarter of previously shortlisted artists are either Goldsmiths alumni or staff. In both 2000 and 2002, three of the four nominees were Goldsmiths graduates.

The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of work in the twelve months preceding 17 April 2015. It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. 

Assemble were awarded for their ongoing collaboration with residents of the Granby Four Streets area of Liverpool. The project has seen the rebuilding and refurbishment of housing and public space, and the creation of new work and enterprise opportunities in the area.

The collective works across the fields of art, design and architecture, creating projects in partnership with the communities who use them. They promote direct action and embrace a DIY sensibility.

The Gallery at Goldsmiths

In May 2014 Goldsmiths held a nationwide competition to design an art gallery for our south east London campus, a venue that will run exhibitions, projects and residencies by leading artists and curators from the UK and abroad.

Assemble’s innovative design respectfully incorporates the black steel water tanks of the historic Laurie Grove baths, capitalising on the 'raw and robust' construction of the existing structure while building two additional steel frame structures which allow for a varied range of gallery space. Adam Willis, from Assemble, has said that the group envision the gallery becoming "a new centre for the arts in south London", adding that Assemble are "honoured to contribute to an institution that is further promoting its identity as an inspirational source of creativity".

Planning permission for the gallery has been approved by Lewisham Council, with construction set to begin next year.

Professor Richard Noble, Head of the Department of Art at Goldsmiths, comments: "Goldsmiths are delighted that Assemble, who are designing our new gallery of contemporary art, have won the Turner Prize. This is a wonderful achievement, and testifies to the astonishing influence they've achieved in their short history as a collective. We wish them all the best.”

Camplin and Kerbel shortlisted

Bonnie Camplin was shortlisted for The Military Industrial Complex, South London Gallery. Camplin's practice is characterised by the critique of existing power-structures, and spans the disciplines of drawing, film, performance, music and writing. The Military Industrial Complex took the form of a study room exploring what ‘consensus reality’ is and how it is formed, drawing from physics to philosophy, psychology, witchcraft, quantum theory and warfare.

The exhibition includes images taken from the Goldsmiths Department of Psychology, including a baby wearing a hairnet of electrodes. “The experiment looks eminently sensible: in our society, after all, science is regarded as an authority,” noted science editor Ian Sample in the Guardian.

Kerbel was shortlisted for her operatic work Doug commissioned by The Common Guild at Mitchell Library, Glasgow. The 25-minute, nine-movement work for six singers was performed in its complete form just once, at the Library.

Kerbel borrows from conventional modes of narrative in order to create elaborate imagined forms. Her precisely crafted works often take the form of audio recordings, performance and printed matter. Doug tells of a series of remarkably unfortunate events to strike a man named Doug - a bear attack, a massive object falling out of the sky on to his head, a lightning strike and a drowning among them; all written in poems of different size, shape, tone and verse.

Appearing on a TateShots video, Kerbel explained: “I don’t feel any particular loyalty to a particular medium or material, but I’m always looking to see if there’s a way to inhabit an existing language. I always want to make something that has a form that’s in anticipation of something else, like a plan, a study or a poster or script, and I’m really interested in how these particular languages have developed in order to suggest something else that might happen in the future.”

Goldsmiths, University of London, is one of the UK's leading arts universities and has made a huge contribution to Britain's arts heritage over the past century. Alumni include previous Turner Prize winners Laure Prouvost, Mark Wallinger, Steve McQueen, Gillian Wearing, Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley and Grenville Davey. 

Find out more about the Department of Art

 

 

Goldsmiths, University of London boasts seven previous Turner Prize winners and 24 shortlisted artists

2013
Laure Prouvost MA (Winner)

2010
Angela de la Cruz BA (Shortlisted)
The Otolith Group - Kodwo Eshun, Lecturer in Visual Cultures (Shortlisted)

2009
Roger Hiorns BA (Shortlisted)

2008
Goshka Macuga MA (Shortlisted)

2007
Mark Wallinger MA (Winner)
Zarina Bhimji BA (Shortlisted)

2006
Rebecca Warren BA (Shortlisted)

2004
Yinka Shonibare MA (Shortlisted)

2003
Anya Gallaccio BA (Shortlisted)

2002
Fiona Banner MA (Shortlisted)
Liam Gillick BA (Shortlisted)
Catherine Yass MA (Shortlisted)

2000
Glenn Brown MA (Shortlisted)
Michael Raedecker MA (Shortlisted)
Tomoko Takahashi BA (Shortlisted)

1999
Steve McQueen BA (Winner)
Jane and Louise Wilson MA (Shortlisted)

1998
Sam Taylor Wood BA (Shortlisted)
Cathy De Monchaux MA (Shortlisted)

1997
Gillian Wearing BA (Winner)
Angela Bulloch BA (Shortlisted)

1996
Gary Hume BA (Shortlisted)
Simon Patterson BA (Shortlisted)

1995
Damien Hirst BA (Winner)
Mark Wallinger MA (Shortlisted)

1994
Antony Gormley BA (Winner)

1992
Grenville Davey BA (Winner)
Damien Hirst BA (Shortlisted)

1991
Ian Davenport BA (Shortlisted)
Fiona Rae BA (Shortlisted)