Turner Prize 2002 artists: Fiona Banner

Banner was born in 1966 in Merseyside. She studied at Goldsmiths College, University of London, from 1991-3. Banner explores the seemingly limitless possibilities of language, yet at the same time demonstrates how words can often fail us, exposing our inability to convey internal thoughts, emotions and experiences. Since 1994, she has created handwritten and printed texts, which describe feature films or particular scenarios in meticulous detail. Since 2000, Banner has used pornographic film to explore sexuality and the extreme limits of written communication. In the works shown in the exhibition, she transcribes the activities taking place in Arsewoman in Wonderland, an X-rated version of Alice’s fictional adventures.

In sculptures and drawings, Banner shows massively enlarged full stops, presenting them as bold distinct shapes. For this exhibition, they also function as seating or objects to lean against, paralleling their role within language. Banner consistently turns to these works as a way of dealing with the elusiveness of true expression through words.