A visit to the book fair at the Tate Modern, organised by tutors at school.
“Offprint London returns to the Turbine Hall for its eighth edition. From 17 to 19 May 2024, it will host independent, experimental and socially-engaged publishers in arts, architecture, design, humanities, and visual culture.” more…
I’ve photographed this stair case on previous visits to the Tate Modern – it’s hard not to want to. Here are two more from my late March visit.
Chryssa was one of the first artists to employ neon for something other than advertising. Here, Study for Gates No. 4.
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Standing Man (Uomo in Piedi) is one of his mirror paintings, allowing me to take this shot.
The moment I saw this, I thought Tower of Babel (or babble). Turns out, it’s called Babel 2001 by Cildo Meireles. You can read all about it here.
I took several shots of this installation but chose this one where I shot straight on, reducing the most central elements, perpendicular to the side I stood on, to mere lines.
“Conceived as a dynamic chess set, Institution vs. The Mass builds on [Anna] Boghiguian’s interest in the cycles of revolution and sociopolitical change throughout history.” see more on the Tate site…
An alternate take on the vas spaces and sense of awe created by modern art spaces, not totally unlike the cathedrals of yore, here at an area in the Tate Modern called The Tanks.
Hanging in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern, El Anatsui’s Behind the Red Moon is immense.
On the left, Duchamp’s famous urinal at the Tate Modern in its protective case. On the right, some comedian signed the toilet seat cover in the men’s room stall at the Whitechapel Gallery in East London.
Continuing my walk along the South Bank after seeing the Sugimoto exhibit at the Hayward Gallery, I came again to the Tate Modern with, for some reason, this quotation from the end of Voltaire’s Candide struck in lights on a frame at the back of a lawn where pigeons flatly rested. Uncanny.
Couldn’t believe they had (the 1964 replica of) Duchamp’s famous urinal on display and I almost walked right past it. Also some suspended objets (below) that I don’t remember the story of.
Wall of Coloured Glass (part of the larger installation, Coal Sculpture with Wall of Coloured Glass, 1999). A Greek artist working in Rome in the arte povere school, Jannis Kounellis also produced the below.
An interesting sculptural piece that plays with Sol LeWitt concepts. Click on the images below to see them enlarged.
Continuing with the theme of museums’ use of geometry, here’s a look at (and through) windows at the Tate Modern. Click any of the images below to see them larger.
I continue to be struck by museums and galleries’ use of space. All the whiteness, openness, vastness and what this says about wealth in the hegemonic metropolises. This is particularly seen in empty space, and the use of geometry in defining spaces like staircases. The Tate Modern is a little bit of a special case, situated as it is in a former power station but the vastness of the space continues to echo the theme. Click on any of the images below to see them full sized.
