Characters from The Simpsons and mannequins in various poses have been shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize.

Four artists, Runa Islam, Mark Leckey, Goshka Macuga and Cathy Wilkes, have been selected to vie for Britain's most controversial art prize.

Wilkes, 42, who lives and works in Glasgow, uses shop mannequins in many of her installations. As well as presenting a mannequin on the toilet she also displayed one holding a baby-buggy.

Leckey, 43, who is described as "a modern day dandy", featured US cartoon The Simpsons in his work last year.

The Birkenhead-born artist spliced images of Marge Simpson walking out of the cinema and the artist himself with a Simpsons mask on in a performance lecture and installation, entitled Cinema in the Round (2007).

Leckey, who lives and works in London, also has "a slight obsession" with Felix The Cat who appears in the film and other pieces.

Jennifer Higgie, the editor of Frieze and one of the judges for this year's prize, said that the artist explores "contemporary ideas of film, and film as sculpture" and that he was "very interested in how images present themselves to the wider public".

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