The artist and poet Heather Phillipson has won the 2016 Film London Jarman Award. She was presented the £10,000 prize by the singer and actor Toyah Wilcox at an award ceremony at the Whitechapel Gallery, London.
We worked with Heather Phillipson on Jerwood Encounters: TTTT, where she exhibited alongside Cécile B. Evans, who was also shortlisted. The shortlist also included Sophia Al Maria, Shona Illingworth, Mikhail Karikis and Rachel Maclean. All the artists will receive a film commission for Channel 4’s short-form arts strand Random Acts.
Heather, who was named a Next Generation Poet in 2014, is known for her film installations that combine sculptural structures with audio and video elements. These often require the viewer to walk or climb through them and have featured outsized sculptures such as the giant foot in her large-scale 2015 installation, Eat Here, at Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt.
Commenting on the award, Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, said: “The UK’s artist filmmakers are at the sector’s cutting edge, and this year’s shortlist offered our judges a riot of styles, stories, genres and subtexts to contemplate. We’re delighted to announce Heather Phillipson as this year’s winner of the Jarman Award for a body of work that is complex, anarchic and deftly views global events through a very personal lens. She collages images, sounds and words with the sense of pacing and rhythm as you might expect from someone who is also a poet and musician.”
Set up in 2008, previous winners of the Jarman Award include Luke Fowler (2008), Emily Wardill (2010), James Richards (2012), and John Smith (2013).
