Turner prize review – soulful cyborgs go into battle with a stack of massive Hobnobs

Mima, Middlesbrough
In a truly competitive year, Kira Freije’s apocalyptic humanoids trounce everything in their path, even the sculpture that looks like a pile of biscuits

The Turner prize is most exciting when you passionately support one of the artists and want to convince everyone she’s a genius. In this year’s show at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, I felt that thrill so strongly, I want to get a T-shirt made to support my artist like the Boro scarves and banners you see around here.

Kira Freije has her own floor, separated by a tall flight of stairs from the three other shortlisted artists, because apparently the fine watery mist in her installation could damage their fragile materials. Yet setting her apart seems like a statement and it’s justified. She shows 33 lifesize statues of tragicomic steampunk cyborgs, individual works but gathered in a vaporous apocalyptic wasteland, with an impact and resonance that’s on a level of its own.

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