Week Forty-Four | Turner Prize

I absolutely loved the Turner Prize this year and seeing drawing so well represented feels a long time in the waiting. Claudette Johnson’s work seems to have fundamentally changed me and my approach. In my ongoing hope for understanding Rachel Jones and how my work may exist on a plane somewhere in a parallel universe, I am mindful that some of the women who have most influenced me over the past year or so are Barbara Walker, Lubaina Himid and Claudette Johnson. Something to consider, given I feel sure my work isn’t really about identity or colonial histories but when put in simple terms, it seems it is all something to consider carefully. I realise when I paint places I am of course painting myself through that lens but I had not really considered identity to be so pointedly of interest. Belonging and loss are subjective in my work but I suppose I have had an aversion to the notion of identity as a driver in my work.

Claudette Johnson

I found the whole Turner prize to be of much greater interest than in previous years although having not seen Barbara Walker’s work last year I may have found that as changing in life had I seen the actual show. It was also a real joy to be in the Tate again after some years - walking along John Islip street after all those years of staying with Kate Gregory there felt like a lovely old pair of slippers.