Gilbert and George / Turner Prize 2005

"What did you think of the match the other night?" We are meeting a few days after Liverpool's glorious Champions League victory over Milan in Istanbul. Gilbert looks disbelieving, then blank. "Are you mad?" George arches an eyebrow and takes a deep drag on his cigarette.

A cracking, crackling little interview in the Guardian with the always good-value Gilbert and George today, and a poster size pull-out of one of their recent works too. Their new works - produced digitally - are centred round hooded figures (often Asian or West Indian) and sound as if they are, well, in the words of Gilbert (or George), "up to date, on account of their subject, their form, their meaning, the feelings they arouse. It's not a pensioner's art."

"A fascinating garment, yes?" George remarks of the hooded top. "The only garment, we feel, which combines the qualities of the foreskin and the condom in one piece".

Elsewhere, the Turner prize shortlist has just been announced:


Gillian Carnegie


Darren Almond

Jim Lambie


Simon Starlings