A load of old fluff

At last - vindication for those who dismiss modern art as little more than ridiculous fluff.

Brazilian artist Tonico Lemos Auad, who makes sculpture out of carpet fluff, is spearheading this year's collection of cuttingedge work from the finalists of the Beck's Futures prize, revealed today.

For the last two days Auad, who also creates portraits from bunches of bananas, has been using a scalpel to reap a crop of fresh fluff from a speciallyinstalled beige carpet at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

He transforms it into life-size sculptures of a monkey, two rabbits (one lacking a head and paws) and what will eventually be either a fox or a cat. "I try not to plan what I'm doing," he said. "Obviously I have some ideas: I was playing here with animals that people consider to bring luck. Rabbits are lucky for Western culture and monkey for Chinese."

Forming the sculptures is surprisingly simple because the fluff 's natural static electricity helps bond the shapes. He said: "The fluff has the static so it is amazing, it is built up."

Auad, 35, will leave some sculptures, such as the rabbit, unfinished to leave an eerie sense of the incomplete. He said: "You might have the feeling that they are going to complete themselves on their own."

The artist has exhibited in galleries across the world, including-Sao Paolo, London and Berlin.

Another piece of work, completed yesterday, is a portrait of an anonymous figure executed by puncturing small holes in a bunch of bananas. The holes encourage the banana to blacken, and the portrait eventually rots away.

Britain's richest art awards, the Beck's Futures prize fund is £65,000, with £20,000 of that going to the overall winner chosen from the 10 finalists.

This is only the fourth year, but it has become an important annual arts fixture, and, unlike any other major art awards, the ultimate winner is chosen by artists. The recipient is announced next month.

The ICA show also boasts a an amusing series of guerrilla poster art by Simon Bedwell, including a picture of a barelydressed Claudia Schiffer with the word "brains" emblazoned across her body.

Susan Philipsz will only install her work today. She will be playing recordings of herself singing and playing the piano from speakers hidden around the ICA. Also obsessed with sound is Imogen Stidworthy, who has made a film of two Cilla Black voice impersonators outsinging each other.