Tate Modern

Rather than a specific artwork or artist that sticks out in my mind (although there *are* a few that do) the general impression I have of the Tate is it’s location and its position in the world. The tate feels like some kind of bastion in a lot of ways. Being inside it seems to remove the alienating and often comical factors of viewing fine art online. The Tate places the objects, however abstract or absurd, in reverence. The experience of this was inspiring; more specifically it validated the ridiculousness of art and contextualised it as philosophy- broad and varied. The subject and reasoning behind exhibits varied from a political statement to “well I found this cello in a cute shop and decided i wanted to make some art with it”, to a simple need to place mark-maker to mark-taker and create. The Tate, pretentious as it may sound, felt like a puzzle of human expression in a lot of ways- the only thing linking exhibits, their location. Some areas were obviously a progression through historical movements and trends, others a single artist’s impression of an issue or observation, and yet others a standalone piece with a tangentially linked meaning. It brings more questions than answers in regards to my search, but its somehow easier to imagine belonging to the eclectic array when wandering the halls. More than any single message written on a 4 inch plaque, the atmosphere of different ideas and perspectives was what comforted me.

However, as earlier stated there are artworks that I reflect on even now, for reasons that should be apparent from their description, for example the cello head with strings replaced by a bush of horse hair – Emak Bakia. The name references Man Ray, the artists, short film of the same name, a surreal film about obsessive love. This kind of tangential attachment to meaning amuses me and makes me question my own past works. My A-level has been called primitive and historical by my foundation teacher which interests me, I’d like to know his opinion on this kind of abstract representationalism. The piece seems more to evoke the memory of the oddity of the original Email Bakia than to stand alone and reimagine the meaning (unless the viewer decides to use their imagination, something likely intentionally encouraged by how separate the two pieces are). I find this kind of nostalgic reminiscing intriguing in a gallery. If there is some greater intention it is in no way referenced by the annotation of the piece aside from the fact that the title means ‘leave me in peace’. In my view this further distances the piece from the video of the same name -but this comes with the disclaimer its just from experiencing it at the gallery and a quick Google search for the video.

Brick Lane

My main takeaway from Brick Lane and Whitechapel gallery was the absolute importance of diffuse lighting on glass-covered artworks. It felt that so much was lost on majestic giant photographs due to the glare of the LED headlights. Similarly to the Tate the building was nice, although obviously smaller and older. I think the works in Whitechapel individually stood out to me more, with a lot of ideas that appealed to me a lot. This might have been due to being less affected by the gallery holistically, but the placements themselves felt more raw somehow. For example, the idea of japanese kktokto (as with much of foreign folklore/religion) is something I am interested to know more about the context of. I also liked the application of paint on print, and the crowded compositions of figures in ‘tracing absences’ by Mikkel McAliden.

I gave a homeless man a tenner, kicked myself, ignored overpriced bagels, shared an evening with a friend, visited an anarchist bookshop and didn’t get lost.

In the context of my current study, the trip was enlightening- giving me a nice overview of the top of the iceberg of modern art and their relation to each other. They seem even more separated now than before! Maybe this is a puzzle without an answer by design and fine art is defined by its difference to all other fine art as I previously thought. Hopefully this means my goosechase to independently pin it down counts as an artwork in itself- or maybe I’m just trying to close all the holes in a sieve with another sieve.