Brighton graduate nominated for £40,000 Turner Prize

University of Brighton graduate Helen Cammock has been announced as one of four artists shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize.

Helen, who graduated with a BA(Hons) in Editorial Photography in 2008, also lectured at the University on the BA(Hons) Photography course.

She was nominated for the £40,000 prize for her solo exhibition The Long Note at Void, Derry, Londonderry and IMMA, Dublin, which examines the role of women in Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement.

The jury praised the “timely and urgent quality of Cammock’s work which explores social histories through film, photography, print, text and performance. Creating layered narratives that allow for the cyclical nature of history to be revealed, The Long Note looks at the history and the role of women in the civil rights movement in Derry Londonderry. The work highlights how the complexities of the politics of Northern Ireland have overshadowed the social history of the region and the variety of political positions taken by women during that time”.

The work of the four shortlisted artists will feature in an exhibition at Margate’s Turner Contemporary from 28 September and the winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on 3 December 2019 live on the BBC, the broadcast partner for the Turner Prize.

Helen works across moving image, photography, writing, poetry, spoken word, song, performance, printmaking and installation. She is interested in sound, history, making films and giving spoken word performances, and giving what has been described as a variety of views and texts which can be perceived differently when spoken by other people.

Now based in London, Helen last year won the Max Mara Art Prize for Women which supports UK–based female artists and which gave her a six-month residency programme in Italy whose results are to be shown at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

Professor Francis Hodgson, the University of Brighton’s Professor in the Culture of Photography, said: “I’m sure I speak for everyone at the University in warmly congratulating Helen on being nominated. This is richly deserved and a great achievement by someone with tremendous talent and who is an inspiration to all art students and graduates.”