George W's burger bar inspires win

An artist who visited President Bush's home-town burger bar for a film on Texas and created a wallchart linking acid-house music and brass bands, has been named the £25,000 ($67,200) winner of the 2004 Turner Prize for contemporary art.

Jeremy Deller, 38, was the hot favourite against competition from Kutlug Ataman, a Turkish-born artist, Yinka Shonibare, whose inspiration stems from both his Nigerian and British roots, and the duo Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, whose work included a video game inspired by a visit to Osama bin Laden's former home in Afghanistan.

Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, speaking on behalf of the judging panel, noted the "outstanding presentations" produced by all four artists in the Turner Prize show which continues at Tate Britain until Christmas.

But in awarding the prize to Deller, Sir Nicholas said: "We praise his generosity of spirit across a succession of projects which engage with social and cultural contexts and celebrate the creativity of individuals."

Deller, who trained at the Courtauld and lives and works in London, is most famous for a project, The Battle of Orgreave, which recreated and recorded on film a pitched fight between police and miners that originally took place during the 1984-85 miners' strike.

But it was for the more recent work, Memory Bucket, that he was shortlisted this year. In Memory Bucket he visited two politically loaded locations in Texas - Waco, scene of the Branch Davidian siege, and Crawford, President Bush's home town.

He wove together interviews with Texans, including the owner of Bush's local diner, and a Quaker woman who opposes the President's actions in Iraq.

This piece is included in the Turner Prize show alongside works such as The History of the World, a wall painting connecting acid house and brass bands and referring back to work seven years ago when he asked a brass band to perform acid-house anthems. The band also performed at the opening of Tate Modern.

Another piece, A Social Parade, in which he organised a parade in the central boulevard of the Spanish town of San Sebastian, is typical of the way he works as "part alchemist, part social-anthropologist", in the words of Tate curator Lizzie Carey Thomas.

The Turner Prize was created 20 years ago to honour a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of his or her work in the previous year.

For the first time this year, all the nominated artists will receive a 5000 pound cheque, thanks to new sponsorship from Gordon's Gin, and the main prize money has been increased from £20,000 to £25,000. Winning can significantly boost an artist's fame and fortune, with previous recipients including Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley and Damien Hirst.

- INDEPENDENT