Artefacts

ANYONE frustrated by the barrage of conflicting opinions over the Turner Prize can air their own views in tomorrow's debate at the Tate Gallery (Wednesday). The debate is chaired by artist Michael Craig-Martin and critic Hilton Kramer, and has a panel comprising painter John Wonnacott, Sarah Kent and Andrew Graham-Dixon. 6.30, The Auditorium, Millbank, London SW1. Tickets pounds 7.50, conc pounds 5.

ONE unlikely member of the audience will be the mysterious woman who last Friday managed to smuggle a bunch of white chrysanthemums past the Tate's guards and, while muttering a prayer to world hunger, throw them on to Vong Phaophanit's short- listed Neon Rice Field, before fleeing the gallery.

WHILE such viewer participation is not encouraged at the Tate, London's Ben Uri Art Gallery has a different attitude in a new show that opens this week. Artist Artworks/ H Levene has used not rice but salt to spell out Hebrew words on the gallery floor. While some visitors will undoubtedly walk round the salt, according it the reverence they would a piece by Richard Long, it is the artist's hope that most will walk through it, scattering it around the room.

WHETHER it's made from salt or rice, what better way to enjoy an exhibit than to eat it from another work of art? Sculptor Richard Wentworth, whose work can currently be seen at the Serpentine Gallery, can help. He has also created an installation for Paul Smith's shop in Covent Garden. His material? Soup bowls.