Susan Philipsz facts for kids

Susan Mary Philipsz, who has an OBE award, was born in 1965. She is a Scottish artist who won the famous Turner Prize in 2010.

She started out as a sculptor, but she is now best known for her sound art. She records herself singing songs without any music, which is called a cappella. These recordings are then played through speakers in art galleries or other special places. Susan Philipsz lives and works in Berlin.

Early Life and Learning

Susan Philipsz was born in Maryhill, a part of Glasgow, Scotland. She grew up with five brothers and sisters.

Her father was partly from Burma and lived there when he was a child. His family's life was greatly affected by war, and he moved to the UK when he was in his twenties. When Susan was young, she sang in her local Catholic church choir with her sisters. This is where she learned to sing in harmony.

From 1989 to 1993, she studied sculpture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee. After that, she earned a master's degree in Fine Arts (MFA) from the University of Ulster. She studied there from 1993 to 1994.

Susan Philipsz is married to an Irish photographer named Eoghan McTigue.

Her Artworks

The loudspeakers on the west breakwater at the entrance to Ystad harbour, for Susan Philipsz's sound installation "The Distant Sound"

Susan Philipsz mostly creates sound art using recordings of her own voice. These recordings are played in specific places. Her goal is to help people connect more deeply with their surroundings and think about things. Even though she sings in many of her works, it's important that she has an ordinary, untrained voice. She cannot read or write sheet music.

She once said that everyone can relate to a human voice. She believes that hearing a voice without music, especially an untrained one, can bring back strong memories. She feels that if she had gone to music school, her art would be very different today.

In 1998, she created a work called "Filter." It included her versions of songs by bands like Nirvana and Radiohead. This piece was played in public places, like a bus station and a supermarket.

Her 1999 work, "The Internationale," is a solo a cappella version of a famous revolutionary song. In her 2000 piece, The Dead, she sings an Irish folk song called "The Lass of Aughrim."

For her 2003 work, "Sunset Song," she sings both the male and female parts of an old American folk song, "Banks of the Ohio." The sound volume changes based on how much light there is. In 2009, she used a vibraphone for her piece "You are not alone." This work was made for the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford.

In 2010, she was asked to create a piece for the Glasgow International Festival. Her artwork, "Lowlands," featured three versions of a 16th-century Scottish sad song called "Lowlands Away." It was played under three bridges over the River Clyde in Glasgow: George V Bridge, the Caledonian Railway Bridge, and Glasgow Bridge. "Lowlands" was later shown at Tate Britain, and it helped her win the 2010 Turner Prize.

For an art show called documenta, she created Study for Strings in 2012. This piece was inspired by an orchestral song written in 1943. This original song was made for musicians at a special camp during a very difficult time in history. For her recording, Philipsz removed the parts for most instruments, leaving only a cello and a viola. This created quiet spaces between the notes played by these two instruments.

Art Shows

Susan Philipsz has shown her art in many important exhibitions around the world. These include the Melbourne International Biennial 1999, Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana in 2000, and the Tirana Biennial in 2001. She also showed her work at the Triennal of British Art at Tate Britain in 2003, the 16th Biennale of Sydney in 2008, and the 55th Carnegie International in 2009. She had her own show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2008.

In 2010, she was asked to create a work for the rotunda (a round room) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

In 2011, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago asked Philipsz to create a sound installation. This piece, called We Shall Be All, was about Chicago's history of workers' rights. It focused on events like the 1886 Haymarket Affair and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). As part of her 2011 show at the MCA, her 1999 work The Internationale was played in the museum's main hall. She also showed her 2002 work Pledge at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum.

In 2013, Philipsz was part of Soundings: A Contemporary Score. This was the first big exhibition of sound art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 2016, her work "Part File Score" was shown at the Hirshhorn Museum.

Awards and Recognition

In 2003, Susan Philipsz was nominated for the Beck's Futures award. In 2010, she won the very important Turner Prize. She received the £25,000 prize at a ceremony at Tate Britain. She was also nominated for a Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award that same year.

Honours

In 2014, she was given the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This award recognized her important contributions to British art.

See also

• Sound art
• List of sound artists