Satire on Turner prize backfires

The artist Rachel Whitread was voted the best - and worst - artist of 
the year yesterday in two contrasting ceremonies whose convergence at 
the Tate Gallery last night bordered on farce, writes Susannah 
Herbert Arts Correspondent.
The jury of the Turner Prize awarded Ms Whitread 20,000 for making "a 
very positive contribution to the debate about the place of art in 
society". But its praise was upstaged by the antics of the K 
Foundation, which named her the worst (in italics) artist on the 
Turner Prize shortlist of four. The K Foundation award - if its 
advertising is to be believed - is worth 40,000. The K Foundation, a 
mysterious orginisation set up by pop group KLF to satirise the 
Turner Prize asked members of the public to vote on its award.
    "We got 3,563 votes and Rachel Whiteread won with a clear 
majority," a spokeswoman said yesterday. The Foundation, which 
announced its winner in a advertising break on Channel Four last 
night, seemed to hope that Ms Whiteread would be too offended to 
accept the prize.
    It underestimated her, however. Ms Whiteread, whose work with 
casts of everyday objects - mattresses, bathtubs, even an entire 
house - has been praised for questioning art's relationship to 
reality, was ready to "take the money and run" said Mr Karsten 
Schubert, whose gallery represents her.
    The gallery issued a statement which said: "As it is not a prize 
with whose aims Rachel Whiteread is prepared to associate herself, 
she has decided that, in the event of her actually being paid the 
40,000, it will be distributed to 10 individual artists in financial 
need."
    Ms. Whiteread, 30, is the first woman to win the Turner Prize, 
which was established in 1984. The judges praised her work for 
"exploring such themes as memory, death, community, isolation, 
homelessness".
    Since its inception the prize been attacked for promoting 
abstract and avant garde at the expense of more traditional art.
    Last night's alternative award started with a convoy of 
limousines outside a Kensington hotel and culminated with a 
presentation on the steps of the Tate.