Turner Prize 2024: Exploring Identity, Memory, and Cultural Narratives

The Turner Prize 2024 exhibition at Tate Britain features four shortlisted artists—Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur, and Delaine Le Bas—each offering distinct perspectives on cultural memory, identity, and political belonging. Their work examines the complexities of history, personal identity, and collective memory, raising questions about who controls historical narratives.

Pio Abad, exhibition view, Turner Prize, Tate Britain, 2024

Pio Abad: Confronting Colonial Histories

Pio Abad, Turner Prize 2024 nominee, addresses cultural loss and the lasting impact of colonialism through his sculptures, drawings, and etchings. Raised in the Philippines, Abad’s work often reflects his family’s experience under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and the subsequent political struggles. His 2024 Turner Prize nomination comes from his solo exhibition, To Those Sitting in Darkness, at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, where he reconfigures historical artifacts to expose overlooked histories.

Abad’s work is deeply concerned with the seductive power of objects. In his artistic practice, objects such as jewelry or rare artifacts serve as vessels for untold, often painful stories of colonialism. By re-imagining these items, Abad challenges the viewer to confront uncomfortable truths about the ways cultural memory is shaped by imperialism and political power.

Pio Abad, exhibition view, Turner Prize, Tate Britain, 2024

Jasleen Kaur: Reworking Cultural Memory

Jasleen Kaur, known for her innovative installations using everyday objects, renegotiates tradition and collective myths in her exploration of cultural memory and political belonging. Kaur’s art asks crucial questions: “Who’s doing the writing of history? Who’s doing the retelling of it? Which things get remembered and which do not?”

Drawing on her upbringing in Glasgow within her family’s hardware stores, Kaur’s work reflects her deep connection to objects and materials. She uses familiar, often overlooked items to examine how histories—particularly those shaped by colonialism—are passed down and how they influence identity. For her 2024 Turner Prize-nominated installation, Alter Altar, she created an immersive sonic landscape using objects like an automated harmonium and kinetic worship bells. At the heart of her installation is a red Ford Escort, covered with an oversized doily, symbolizing the blend of personal and inherited histories. By combining sound, objects, and space, Kaur re-imagines how the narratives we inherit circulate in intangible ways and shape our understanding of identity and belonging.

Kaur’s interest in exploring how intimate family memories and community traditions meet larger sociopolitical structures places her work at the forefront of conversations about cultural memory. In her installations, Kaur brings invisible histories to light, questioning the legacies of colonialism and challenging viewers to think about whose stories are told and how they are remembered.

Jasleen Kaur, exhibition view, Turner Prize, Tate Britain, 2024

Delaine Le Bas: Art as an Immersive Experience of Identity

Delaine Le Bas, a Romani artist, transforms her environments into immersive installations that draw on the rich cultural history of the Roma people. Her Turner Prize-nominated work, Incipit Vita Nova at Secession in Vienna, is a monumental exploration of identity, grief, and renewal. Le Bas’s use of theatrical costumes, painted fabrics, and sculptures creates spaces that merge personal and collective memories.

Le Bas’s art is inextricably linked to her lived experience as a Romani woman. She reflects on the complexities of Romani identity, exploring themes of displacement, loss, and renewal. Her installations offer viewers a journey into mythologies and histories that have been erased or marginalized. In her words, her whole life and identity are “one whole thing,” seamlessly blending art and life into a single, cohesive expression of the Romani experience.

Delaine Le Bas, exhibition view, Turner Prize, Tate Britain, 2024

Claudette Johnson: Amplifying Black Presence in Art

Claudette Johnson’s vibrant figurative portraits are a celebration of Black presence, challenging the historical marginalization of Black people in Western art. Nominated for her exhibitions Presence at The Courtauld Gallery in London and Drawn Out in New York, Johnson uses her paintings to give space and visibility to Black men and women. Her works, often featuring friends and family, offer a deeply personal exploration of identity.

Her large-scale pieces, rich with color and emotional intensity, emphasize the humanity and presence of her subjects. Johnson’s most recent work, Kind of Blue, stands out for its striking use of blue tones and its ability to project the personhood of its subjects. Through her art, Johnson reclaims space for Black bodies in the history of portraiture, offering new narratives about identity, race, and representation.