BRIT Awards unveil Tracey Emin’s revamped prize statue for 2015
The redesigned BRIT Awards trophy for 2015 ceremony has gone public.
Tracey Emin, one of Britain’s eminent visual artists, was commissioned to give the coveted music-industry statuette prize a brand new image for next year’s ceremony on 25 February. And today, it was announced that up-and-coming singer-songwriter James Bay was the first 2015 BRITs winner to be awarded the new-look trophy for the Critics' Choice category.
Emin has adorned the statuette (pictured), which has a rosette attached to the back, with elegant pastel and flowery colours plus a handwritten message congratulating the winner.
A nominee of the Turner Prize (Britain’s most famous contemporary art award), Emin once hit the headlines for the controversial My Bed. It is an installation art piece centred on a dishevelled double bed covered in dirty sheets, used condoms, stained underwear and empty drink bottles. It was sold for £2.2 million earlier this year.
She has won numerous awards, has exhibitions all over the world, and is now considered a member of the country’s art establishment.
She is also the fifth visual artist invited by the BPI, the UK music industry’s trade body and the BRIT Awards organiser, to add her unique creative touch to the original plain trophy.
In a statement, Emin says: “You want to do it really well. You don’t just want to decorate it, you want to make something that is really Tracey-ish, that is special for the people receiving it.”
The first time a celebrity in the creative industries was asked to redesign the prize was in 2011, when the honour went to fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.
Peter Blake, who designed the iconic album cover for The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, was selected in 2012. He was followed in 2013 by Damien Hirst, who like Emin belongs to the revolutionary Young British Artists movement. Fashion hat designer Philip Treacy was chosen last year.
The 2015 BRIT Awards will be held at The O2 venue in London and be broadcast live on the ITV network on 25 February.
[Juliana Koranteng]