The Ministry of Artistic Affairs
Tuesday, December 7, 2010

This video offers an excerpt from Susan Philipsz's "Lowlands" sound art piece which helped her earn the very prestigious Turner Prize for 2010.

Breaking News -- December 6, 2010

Scottish artist Susan Philipsz has struck a blow for the ever-expanding genre of sound art by scooping the 2010 Turner Prize.

In a ceremony this evening at Tate Britain she beat off competition from the painter Dexter Dalwood, artist-led collective The Otolith Group and the crumpled and mangled canvasses of Angela de la Cruz.

The fourth woman and the first sound artist to win the prize Philipsz professed herself to be “very honoured to have won the award”.


Channel 4 News coverage of the announcement and acceptance speech.

She also thanked family and friends before singling out visual arts commissioning agency Artangel for their help with her current London based sound installation Surround Me, which is currently playing to the deserted weekend streets of the city.

Featuring her distinctive signature voice drifting across walkways, alleys and the banks of the Thames, it is similar to the work that brought her to the attention of the Turner Prize judges, Lowlands, which she arranged under three bridges beside the River Clyde in Glasgow.

The sound installation was described by Turner Prize Chair of Judges Penelope Curtis as a piece that “made you look at things differently by hearing things differently, which is really quite exceptional.”

Philipsz also found time to voice her support for Arts Against the Cuts by saying “education is not a privilege but a right, I support Arts against the cuts. I think it’s harder to have an education because of the cuts and I support what they are fighting for.”

She wins £24,000.

As reported by Richard Moss on Culture 24.