LIVERPOOL ART PRIZE WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Collaborative duo Al and Al were announced as winners of the 2009 Liverpool Art Prize on Thursday, reports the Liverpool Daily Post. They were chosen from a short list of six by a panel of judges. Installation artist Elizabeth Willow was named as recipient of the People’s Choice Award, with her work receiving most votes from visitors to the contest’s exhibition.

Al and Al are otherwise known as Al Taylor and Al Holmes. They are currently working as artists-in-residence at Edge Hill Station in Liverpool, which they are transforming into an art space. Their submitted pieces include a series of video works viewed through 3-D glasses, which were originally commissioned for an exhibition in Mechelen, in Belgium. The images feature pink triangles, which was the Nazi symbol for homosexuality. “Mechelen was the point where trains destined for Auschwitz would start, and being gay, we realized that we would have been on those trains,” explains Holmes. Also included is a series of giant tarot cards, created using digital imagery. Al and Al will receive a cash prize of three thousand dollars.