Painter, Sculptor and Video Artist Compete for Britain's Controversial Turner Prize

LONDON (The Associated Press)—Abstract paintings, an installation made of trash and a video of dancing Palestinians were among the works for the Turner Prize, Britain's highest-profile and most controversial arts award, which will be announced tonight.

The £25,000 ($49,000) prize will be presented by Yoko Ono during a ceremony at London's Tate Britain gallery.

This year's eclectic shortlist is typical of a prize that has in the past honored "Brit Art" upstarts such as transvestite potter Grayson Perry, dung-daubing painter Chris Ofili and shark pickler Damien Hirst.

London artist Rebecca Warren, 41, specializes in sculptures of large cartoon women with what the judges called "humongous knobbly breasts and enormous bobbly buttocks."

Warren was also cited for I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass, a display made of pieces of hair, twig, dust and fluff picked up off the floor of her studio.

Work by Glasgow-based video artist Phil Collins, 35, includes a video of nine people who believe their lives have been ruined by reality TV.

For another piece, he paid nine young Palestinians to take part in an eight-hour disco-dancing marathon for a piece called They Shoot Horses.

German-born Tomma Abts, 38, produces abstract paintings that all measure exactly 48 by 38 centimeters (18.9 inches by 15 inches)

She begins every piece with no idea what she is about to paint and says they symbolize nothing at all.

Mark Titchner, 33, uses slogans from evangelical literature, pop lyrics, political manifestos and advertising in wall paintings, light boxes, digital animation and sculpture.

Last year's winner was Simon Starling, who turned a shed into a boat, then back into a shed.

The Turner Prize show runs at Tate Britain through Jan. 14.