British sound artist marks first by winning Turner Prize

Dec 6, 2010, 21:03 GMT

London - Britain's prestigious Turner Prize for modern art was Monday awarded to a sound artist for her recording of a traditional Scottish folk song, the Tate Britain Gallery said.

Susan Philipsz made history by becoming the first artist to win the prize, which is worth 25,000 pounds (39,300 dollars), for a sound installation.

The recording of her singing of three versions of the Scottish lament Lowlands Away, which are played over each other and echo off the gallery walls, had been hot favourite to win the controversial prize.

It was first performed beneath three bridges over the River Clyde in her native city of Glasgow, in Scotland.

Philipsz, who now lives and works in Berlin, is best known for recording herself singing versions of pop and folk songs, which she has replayed in stairwells and supermarkets.

Her lament tells the story of a man drowned at sea who returns to tell his lover of his death. It was described by Tate Britain as a 'very physical work that plays upon the otherwise emptiness of the gallery.'

The themes of nostalgia, longing and escapism in her work stimulated a heightened sense of spatial awareness, emotion and memory, the Tate said.

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