Clockwise from top left: Lola by Gillian Carnegie, Shedboatshed by Simon Starling, The Kinks by Jim Lambie, and a still from If I Had You by Darren Almond. Photographs: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty and Stefan Rousseau/PA
Bums or sheds? Video or vinyl tape? Months of speculation will be at an end tonight when the winner of the 2005 Turner prize, British contemporary art's plushest and noisiest award, is announced at the usual starry (and probably boozy) dinner at Tate Britain. Channel 4 is screening the whole thing live from 8pm, and we'll be carrying the result right here as soon as it happens (9.30 or so, I'm told).
Given that there are only four finalists, the judges have managed to cram a fair amount in: a slow-motion tribute to the Tower Ballroom at Blackpool, a painter who paints trees and nudes (shock! horror!), a man who builds boats from sheds, and another who stretches strips of vinyl tape across the floor. (Confused? Here's how not to be.)
All that aside, it's been refreshingly quiet this time round - maybe because this year's entries aren't confrontational in the way we've come to expect from the Turner, and opportunities for posturing by politicians and art critics correspondingly reduced. Phew.
But who's it going to be?
The bookies' money has consistently been on painter Gillian Carnegie, though not by all that much. When I was down at the show a few weeks ago the buzz among visitors seemed to be that Jim Lambie, whose The Kinks is probably the most eye-catching and shouty entry, might well steal it from under her nose. Others fancy Simon Starling's chances; Darren Almond has his fans (one of whom, I admit, is me). It's a difficult call.
Which is, of course, where you expert Vulturites come in. This evening seems an awfully long way away, doesn't it? I'm not sure I can wait ...
(If you feel the need to mug up first, you've come to the right place. And if you fancy a VIP trip to the show, why not take your chances in our competition?)
