Shiver me timbers. Simon Starling it is. Many commentators had it wrong: painter Gillian Carnegie didn't get a look in, and Starling - probably better known as the man who built a boat from a shed before turning it back into a shed - has triumphed in this year's Turner prize.
He's the recipient of a £25,000 cheque, a massively increased public profile and, in all probability, faces a very odd year ahead. He said he's "a bit flabbergasted" to win. You don't doubt it.
Interesting to speculate why the judges came to their decision. It's undeniable that Starling's contributions to the show emphasise concepts rather than objects: Starling himself has said that his works are a "physical manifestation of a thought process", and the items he chooses to display - alongside the shed, a hydrogen-powered bicycle he rode across the Tabernas desert - seem almost incidental. Back-story is all.
That has earned criticism from some, among them our own Adrian Searle (who openly wondered whether, "once the anecdote has been told, what's left?"). Clearly the judges thought differently, however, and Starling's careful, quiet brand of eco-centred, anti-globalisation art does seem a topical enough choice.
People as media-savvy as the Turner judges, however, might have another trick up their sleeve, one designed to liven up an otherwise controversy-free year. Tomorrow's headlines are guaranteed to be full of open-mouthed (and expertly polished) disbelief that a man who takes apart sheds for a living has won the Turner prize. Joinery jokes are on the way, mark my words.
