Ross Sinclair

Winner of the Baloise Art Prize 2001.



The jury described their decision as follows: “Ross Sinclair has devoted his work to St. Kilda, an island at the end of the world, which was cut off from civilisation for over a thousand years before becoming the most remote outpost of the United Kingdom. No longer able to subsist, the few remaining inhabitants were evacuated in 1930. Sinclair has drawn this infinitely remote "other place" into the present again. In suggestive black-and-white pictures, historical documents, fragments of Scottish folklore and a room-sized installation where viewers encounter both comforting security and oppressive isolation, the artist has created a place that evokes the past, imparts a sense of loss and hints at a potential utopia. Through a lifelong devotion to his project Real Life, Ross Sinclair occupies an outstanding position in an art world that is always threatening to succumb to the short-lived moment. Sinclair makes art that is related to the world and engaged in a dialogue with it”.