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Sean Rainbird

Tate curator Sean Rainbird wrote an illustrated essay on Steven Pippin for the catalogue for the Turner Prize exhibition of 1999, held at Tate Britain, 20 October 1999 - 6 February 2000. Along with Tracey Emin, Steve McQueen and Steven Pippin, Jane and Louise Wilson were shortlisted for the Turner Prize 1999.

The award was, in due course, made to McQueen, for his exhibitions at the Institute of Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and Kunsthalle, Zurich, which documented his original and uncompromising approach to film installations, including a major new piece, Drumroll, and his innovative presentation of work in other media.” McQueen was only the second Black British artist to win the Turner Prize. The first, Chris Ofili, was the previous year’s winner.

Emin was shortlisted for “her solo exhibitions at Lehmann Maupin, New York, and Sagach Exhibition Space, Tokyo, in which she exhibited works that showed a continuing vibrancy and flair for self-expression, a frank and often brutal honesty, and her versatility across a range of media.” Steven Pippin was shortlisted “for his exhibition Laundromat-Locomotion originating at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in which he transformed twelve laundry machines into cameras in an ambitious experiment exploring the relationship between vision and motion through photography.” Jane and Louise Wilson were shortlisted for their exhibition Gamma at the Lisson Gallery, which documented the interiors of the decommissioned missile base at Greenham Common. The drama and intelligence of this work revealed the Wilsons’ increasingly sophisticated approach to photographic and video installation.”

 All the above quotes come from the introduction to the Turner Prize catalogue, which also contained introductions - both written and visual - to these artists’ work.

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