Turner Prize- Baltic

Great to have the Turner in the NE at the Baltic.
Martin Boyce  (Winner)
V interesting installation based on urban park, plenty of modernist references but has a quiet beauty which can be experienced without any 'art knowledge'. Interesting refreence back to early work by Joel and Jan Martel (1925) using 'concrete trees'.
White painted metal cut outs suspended from the ceiling provide gently ffiltered light, as if through trees. Paper leaves as if blown in are scattered on the floor, a 'tortured' waste bin sets a strange note of angst in an otherwise serene composition.  A concrete 'wall hanging' incorporating carefully placed metallic letters ( to his own typeface) provides another layer of meaning.

Karla Black
Has track record of making substantial works from raw and otherwise impermanent materials - powders, creams,oils,gels and pastes.
Her installation appears to be constructed from large sheets of clear plastic and paper coverd with coloured powder/ talc.
Makes ineresting use of the space with one entrance largely obscured so the work gradually revelas itself as you progress into the room. Swathes of material are twisted up towards the ceiling as if the work were to break free and continue next door. Scale is such that you can walk through the work and appreicate the flow of space from different angles. The coloured powders are soft shades, predominantly yelows and greens- the folding of the plastic/ paper allows for a great variety of small and shaded spaces with subtle changes of hue.

George Shaw
Found his paintings for more engaging than on first viewing at his recent Baltic show although the subject matter is, of course, the same. The bleak nature of the subject matter, the  low light levels and painstaking detail combine to say something poignant about how we live, nostalgia and memory. Their 'traditiional' quality provides a good foil to the other three artists on show.

Hilary Lloyd
Works with video and still image installation - describes her approach as akin to painting.
Her work is very much geared to the specific space which she has been alloted. The projectors are very much part of the experience and are deliberately placed at low level so that the become an intergral part of the composition. Moving and still projected images, usually  semi abstract form a dynamic background  tableau to the space, very  much as multifarious images form the background to our everyday lives.
Three chest height projectors filter part of the exhibition space which provides some  psychological block to freedom of movement ( interrupting the projected images) though this activity is, very much, part of the dynamic of the work. Subtle and interesting stuff!