Bush town film wins Turner Prize

Jeremy Deller, the artist behind a film about US President George Bush’s home town, was tonight named the winner of this year’s Turner Prize.

Deller’s winning work Memory Bucket is comparatively tame for an award which is known for attracting controversy.

Memory Bucket is a mixed media installation whose main component is an unnarrated film about

Crawford, Texas.

The film, made last year, features various encounters with locals, including a survivor of the Waco siege, and takes a look around Bush’s favourite burger bar near his ranch.

It ends with the image of millions of bats emerging from a cave at sunset and blackening the sky.

At 38, Deller is the youngest of the shortlisted artists and was the immediate bookmakers’ favourite when the nominees, on the prize’s 20th anniversary, were announced.

Deller, who lives and works in London, wins £25,000 after beating the three other shortlisted artists, who each take home £5,000.

The announcement was made at Tate Britain in London, with the award presented by Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow.

Previous winners of the prize, which is awarded to a British artist under the age of 50, include Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, and, last year, transvestite potter Grayson Perry.

Others on the 2004 shortlist include the duo Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, who recreated an interactive digital model of Osama bin Laden’s former house in Afghanistan.

Yinka Shonibare, who was born in London and grew up in Nigeria, was shortlisted for sculptural installations in which “he uses African fabric to subvert conventional readings of cultural identity”.

His work includes what appears to be a picnic scene but is actually headless figures having sex.

The other nominee, Istanbul-born Kutlug Ataman, interviews men and women who believe they have been reincarnated.

The ceremony was broadcast live on Channel 4.