Turner Prize 2024: Jasleen Kaur wins with artwork showcasing Scottish Sikh community

Jasleen Kaur – an artist whose latest exhibition uses a vintage Ford Escort, worship bells and Irn-Bru to celebrate the Scottish Sikh community – has won this year’s Turner Prize.

The 38-year-old, who grew up in Glasgow, won the award for her Alter Altar exhibition at the city’s contemporary arts venue Tramway.

The judges noted the “considered way in which she weaves together the personal, political and spiritual in her exhibition”.

Kaur was praised for gathering “different voices through unexpected and playful combinations of material”.

The artist was presented with the £25,000 prize by actor James Norton at Tate Britain on Tuesday evening.

She beat fellow shortlisted nominees Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson and Delaine Le Bas.

Kaur said she wasn’t aware of the Turner Prize while growing up, saying she didn’t have the “cultural access”.

She said “I have had so many messages today from people from the local Sikh community and from folk that I grew up with.

“Something like this that is so visible means a lot to a lot of different people.

“It means something to different groups and I’m up of representing all of them”.

Kaur’s exhibition includes family photos, an Axminster carpet, a vintage car covered in a giant doily and kinetic handbells.

Turner Prize organisers noted Kaur’s work explores how cultural memory is layered in the objects and rituals that surround us.

The judges said Alter Altar “reflects upon everyday objects, animating them through sound and music to summon community and cultural inheritance”, resulting in a “visual and aural experience that suggests both solidarity and joy”.

Kaur studied silversmithing and jewellery at Glasgow School of Art in 2008, before moving to London to study at the Royal College of Art the following year.

Her work has previously been showcased at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her short film Yoorop showed an account of Europe using footage from popular Indian cinema.

It was intended to show an image of European-ness from an alternative cultural perspective.

Established in 1984, the Turner Prize is the most high-profile award in British art and this year it celebrates its 40th anniversary.

Named after the British painter JMW Turner, the prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art.

Previous winners include Anish Kapoor, Steve McQueen, Gillian Wearing, Antony Gormley, Grayson Perry, Jeremy Deller, Helen Marten and Veronica Ryan.

The exhibition of this year’s four shortlisted artworks runs at the Tate Britain until 16 February 2025.

Every other year, the prize travels to a non-Tate venue, to widen the British public’s access to contemporary art. Next year’s event will be held in Bradford as part of the 2025 UK City of Culture celebrations.