Turner show unveils 'porn' art

Banner's billboard: "Not pornography"

A billboard which gives a detailed account of a pornographic film and a suspended ceiling are among the works nominated for the 2002 Turner Prize, which opens to the public on Wednesday.

	:	Turner Prize 2002
See the art shortlisted for this year's £20,000 prize

The Turner Prize is well known for raising eyebrows among the public, art world and the media and the accompanying show at London's Tate Britain gallery is traditionally one of the most popular shows of the year.

Fiona Banner's Arsewoman In Wonderland gives the artist's graphic description of an adult film, written in shocking pink letters. Visitors will be given a warning about the exhibit before they see the show.

The four shortlisted artists - Banner, Liam Gillick, Keith Tyson and Catherine Yass - will learn who has won the coveted prize, and with it a £20,000 cheque, in December.

Turner odds

Keith Tyson 11-8

Catherine Yass 2-1

Fiona Banner 11-4

Liam Gillick 7-2

William Hill

Banner's work concentrates on the use of language and her art works exhibited include bronze casts of giant full stops, one of which can be used as a seat.

Another work is her description of a woman posing naked for a life drawing class which she has written directly onto the gallery wall, slanted to echo a shaft of light.

Keith Tyson: Praised for "playfulness"

The exhibition's curator has denied that she has made the shortlist because she is controversial.

"The independent jury thinks she's made one of the most significant contributions to British art in the past year.

"It's making art about porn not making porn itself. Sex is part of our society, watching a porn film with its graphic sex gives different emotions.

"Her interest in porn is the mixed response it elicits. Her description is a way to understand what is happening in the film but it is also her very visceral response to it."

Descent, by Catherine Yass

Equally eye-catching is Liam Gillic's Perspex ceiling, which re-creates the sense of light coming through a stained glass window in the gallery.

Catherine Yass is showing two films at the show - one a movie shot from a remote controlled helicopter and the other a film shot as a camera is raised by a crane in the mist at Canary Wharf, east London.

The final artist, Keith Tyson, is exhibiting an octagonal monolithic block with computer machinery inside called The Thinker (After Rodin).

He has also presented a number of vividly coloured paintings, two of which are almost identical except the wording on each varies slightly to describe simultaneous events through history.

Keith Tyson's work featured at the Venice Biennale

Ms Stout defended the shortlisted artists saying: "I personally think all the artists this year have a really strong presentation of their work. It's a very energetic and engaging show.

"It's all about coming along and thinking for yourself. It's fine not to like everything."

The Turner Prize 2002 Exhibition will be on display at Tate Britain from 30 October to 5 January.

The prize itself will be handed out on 8 December.

This year's jury features Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota; critic and lecturer Michael Archer; Hayward Gallery director Susan Ferleger Brades; Alfred Pacquement, director of the National Museum of Modern Art at the Pompidou Centre in Paris; and Greville Worthington, representing Patrons of New Art.