The 2009 turner prize exhibition opened at the Tate Britain today.
The controversial candidates for the annual competition of contemporary art that is sinonymous with controversy that regularly triggers the debate about what is art and what is not. The winner of the prize gets a fat cheque for £25 000, winner is announced Dec 7.

Richard Wright has adorned the far wall of a room with symmetrical, intricate gold-leaf patterns…. he is currently holding the outsider odds, I personally think it is quite beautiful.

Richard Hiorns has covered half of a gallery floor with the black and grey metal dust of an atomised passenger aircraft engine, in a work designed to question our faith in technology and remind us of our own mortality.

Others in the running are Enrico David and Lucy Skaer.

All bets are on!!