An Edinburgh-based political arts organisation whose work “supports connections between art and social change” has been awarded £10,000 in liey of this year's Turner Prize.
The Scottish arts organisation, Arika, is one of ten artists to be given £10,000 bursaries to mark the annual prize called off because of the pandemic.
A jury picked the 10 artists for their “significant contributions to new developments in British contemporary art”.
Responding to the news earlier today, Arika wrote in a post to its followers: "We are extremely grateful for the award and for this moment of recognition and acknowledgment and to be sharing this platform with our fellow bursary recipients, whom we also congratulate."
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The bursary, which recognised the organisation as a whole, paid particular heed to Arika's work 'Episode 10: A Means Without End'.
According to the arts group, episodes are "festivals of performance, dance, music and film; discussion, debate and spaces of learning together. They investigate interlinked social themes and contradictions, which develop from one Episode to the next."
Arika say they plan to redistribute the money to radical grassroots community groups they have "longstanding relationships with", including Ubuntu Women Shelter; migrant-led groups The Unity Centre, LGBT Unity & Unity Sisters; and sex worker-led organisations SCOT-PEP, SWARM (Sex Workers Advocacy and Resistance Movement) & Umbrella Lane.
Other Scotland-based recipients include Glasgow artist and singer Jamie Crewe and Alberta Whittle, who shares her time between Barbados, Scotland and South Africa.
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Crewe uses video, sculpture, drawing and text to examine ideas of identity, power, desire, community and history, while Whittle uses collage and sculpture to “tackle anti-blackness and the trauma, memory and ecological concerns which come in the aftermath of slavery and colonialism.”
Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson said artists were dealing with the theme of “care” and the work “speaks to our time”.
“They deal with some very serious issues … that we face as a society,” he said.
“The artists are all politically engaged and reflect the pressing issues we face as a society today,” he said, adding that “equally it’s a very aesthetically rich list”.
He added: “These bursaries represent a vote of confidence in that work and offer some much-deserved support in challenging times.”
The artists are eligible for the Turner Prize in future, which plans to return to its exhibition format in 2021.
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