Tate's vision of a London under fire
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A futuristic shelter for besieged Londoners inspired by the July 7 bombings and the Blitz was unveiled yesterday as the latest installation to fill Tate Modern's vast Turbine Hall.
TH.2058, by the French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, includes bunk beds, replica artworks, dripping rain and a film of dystopian worlds.
The work is set 50 years in the future and is inspired by the idea of London under attack "whether by flooding, bombing or invasion". Gonzalez-Foerster, 43, has imagined the city as a place of disaster and its population taking shelter from never-ending rain.
Piercing lights refer to our surveillance culture and the installation incorporates gargantuan animal sculptures including a 65ft flamingo – a copy of a work by Alexander Calder – and a replica of a spider by Louise Bourgeois that stood outside the gallery last year.
The main part of the installation consists of bunk bed frames with books such as JG Ballard's The Drowned World and Mike Davis' Dead Cities placed on them, and a large screen at one end showing excerpts from science fiction films.
A museum guard at the age of 18, Gonzalez-Foerster said she was "so shocked to see how little time people spent in front of a work", that she had dedicated her 20-year career to creating art that stops visitors in their tracks. She added that she had placed replica artworks alongside the bunk beds as a nod to art history.
"it is a work which is intense and turbulent, saying: 'Fasten your seatbelts,' but it is not a pessimistic work. it has a dark side but if you spend more time in it, it's not only dark," she said.
"I think it's up to the audience to invent their relationship to it. I see it as a giant editing room. You could be reading a sentence in one of the books when you look up at the screen.".
The work is the ninth commissioned by Unilever, which yesterday showed its continued confidence in the Turbine Hall project by pledging a further £2.16m until 2012. Past works in the series have included Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project, consisting of a giant simulated sun, Anish Kapoor's Marsyas, a set of steel rings joined together by bright red PVC membrane, and Carsten Holler's popular Test Site, which was made up of giant metal slides.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments