Susan Philipsz

Susan Mary Philipsz OBE (born 1965) is a Scottish artist who won the 2010 Turner Prize. Originally a sculptor, she is best known for her sound installations. She records herself singing a cappella versions of songs which are replayed over a public address system in the gallery or other installation. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

Early life and education Philipsz was born in Maryhill, Glasgow, one of six siblings. Philipsz's father is half-Burmese and grew up in Burma as a child. His family's life was "pulled apart by the war", and he came to the UK in his twenties. In her youth, Philipsz sang in the local Catholic church choir with her sisters where she learned to harmonize. She later earned a master's degree in Fine Arts (MFA) degree from the University of Ulster, where she studied from 1993 to 1994. She was the Director of Catalyst Arts in Belfast for several years. Philipsz is married to Irish photographer Eoghan McTigue.

Her 1999 work "The Internationale" consists of a solo a cappella version of the revolutionary song. She sings the Irish ballad "The Lass of Aughrim" in her 2000 work, The Dead. She used a vibraphone for her 2009 piece, "You are not alone", commissioned for the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford.

In 2010, she was commissioned by the Glasgow International Festival. Her piece, "Lowlands", was three versions of what she called a 16th-century Scottish lament, "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 subsequently exhibited at Tate Britain, winning her the 2010 Turner Prize.

Developed for documenta, Study for Strings (2012) riffs on an orchestral piece composed in 1943 at the Theresienstadt concentration camp for musicians there. For her recording, Philipsz left out the parts for all the instruments except one cello and one viola, leaving plangent silences between those two players' scattered notes.

Exhibitions Philipsz has exhibited at the Melbourne International Biennial 1999, Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana in 2000, the Tirana Biennial in 2001, at Triennal of British Art at Tate Britain in 2003, the 16th Biennale of Sydney in 2008, and at the 55th Carnegie International in 2009. She gave a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2008.

She was commissioned to create a work for the rotunda at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 2010.

In 2011, Philipsz was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago to create a sound installation. This piece titled We Shall Be All draws from Chicago's labor history, specifically the 1886 Haymarket Affair and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies. Part of her 2011 exhibition at the MCA was a presentation of her work The Internationale in the building's atrium. In addition to her MCA exhibition, she presented her 2002 work Pledge at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, located on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus.

In 2013 Philipsz was included in Soundings: A Contemporary Score, the first-ever major exhibition of sound art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 2016, her work, "Part File Score" was exhibited at the Hirshhorn Museum.

Recognition In 2003, Philipsz was nominated for the Beck's Futures award. In 2010, she won the prestigious Turner Prize for a sound installation that features her singing three versions of a Scottish lament. She received the £25,000 prize at a ceremony at Tate Britain that was disrupted by protests over the British Government's educational cuts.