turner prize

What you'll make of it all is a different matter.
If you are expecting penguins pickled in gin or unmade pavements or rents in the ceiling you'll be disappointed. There are no headline shockers this year.
In fact, frankly it's all a bit tame.
But still, it's the Turner Prize for goodness sake! Torn from London's clammy grasp and dragged to the windswept north.
Art critics timidly ventured out of the capital yesterday to get their first peek along with those of us from the provinces.
We were guided around by the two curators who explained the raison d'etre behind Zarina Bhimji, Nathan Coley, Mark Wallinger and Mike Nelson's work.
An oddity of the Turner is that the artists can show what they like from their back catalogue or new works. It doesn't have to be what they were nominated for.
Apparently Nelson had pulled an all nighter to get his Amnesiac Shrine piece completed and had gone off for a well-deserved sleep.
I love the peep holes 'punched' in its white walls which reveal a landscape of sand and twinkling lights stretching to infinity - it reminded me of a night I once spent in the Moroccan desert, only less cold!
I also very much like the light in Bhimji's photographic images of India, East Africa and Zanzibar.
Mark Wallinger - a hot favourite this year for his State Britain installation - was there last night, a lovely, gentle, slightly shambling man who looks as if he'd be at home in the bear costume he wore night after night to create his film Sleeper in a Berlin art gallery.
But my personal favourite is Nathan Coley's dazzling lights which spell out the legend There Will Be No Miracles Here.
It can mean different things to different people, but has an irony not lost on the programme writers let alone its viewers when you consider the city's teeter on the brink of culture year.
I was determined to have my picture taken in front of this legend, and dared council leader Warren Bradley to join me. And lo and behold (and, I hope, against his better judgement!!) he did!

Maybe that proves that miracles DO happen - although I suspect it's going to need the fingers and toes of the entire city crossed that a miracle presents itself when it comes to filling the £20m funding shortfall Liverpool currently faces for 2008.
Maybe it also means Labour should consider prefacing all their requests to Warren in council with "I dare you" in future....
Meanwhile back in Coley's section of the Turner Prize, the artist has placed tactile oak beams as "threshold" sculptures at each of the doorways.
It's about marking his territory apparently. That's all very well. But pity the poor Tate staff whose job for the next three months will be telling people to "mind the step".
It's the Turner Prize.
In Liverpool.
It's free - go and see it.
Just mind the step.........and maybe hope for a miracle while you do.