The Turner Prize exhibition has been in full swing at the Baltic, Gateshead for two weeks now, and speculation as to who will be this year’s winner is gathering momentum. Having spent some time in the Turner exhibition in the course of my employment I have had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the work to some extent. In the case of George Shaw, some of the paintings were already familiar from the exhibition for which he was nominated for the Turner, The Sly and Unseen Day, also exhibited at the Baltic earlier this year. So you could say his images have had plenty of time to insinuate themselves into my subconscious. Driving home yesterday afternoon at around 4.30 to 5pm, peering through the murk of a dank November day, I realized that the road with it’s looming, dripping trees and the pink-grey sky seemed familiar in a different way. Some subtle transformation was taking place. Then it occurred to me that I was seeing it as if it was a George Shaw painting. This inversion, where what is represented takes on the qualities of its representation, attests to the power of the image and gives an insight into the fears of iconoclasts in whatever age or culture.