Quick Visit to the Tate Modern
When I want to give presents that are uniquely from London (well, via China), I have two options: random souvenir shops for amusing tat or the many excellent museum shops. Today's mission was to the Tate Modern, where I now realise I haven't been for a whole six months.
A new installation was put into the Turbine Hall late last year, Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo. "Shibboleth asks questions about the interaction of sculpture and space, about architecture and the values it enshrines, and about the shaky ideological foundations on which Western notions of modernity are built.."
Yep, it's a crack in the floor.
The Tate has taken pains to assure visitors that they will be coming to see a real crack and that it's not done with mirrors.
Lunch was a more inviting prospect than this, so I bought a camomile tea and a chocolate muffin. And was disappointed again. I should've learned by now, English American-style muffins don't make you feel better for having eaten them. They're too dry, though for once that wasn't the problem. As soon as this muffin's wrapper was removed, it ceased to be a muffin and became a collection of tasty crumbs. I think I expended more calories eating it than it contained and the resulting patterns of chocolate on my face had no artistic merit whatsoever.
There was something good to be found though. Louise Bourgeois's Maman has returned to the Tate Modern, this time standing calmly outside the building.
Woo, spider!
A new installation was put into the Turbine Hall late last year, Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo. "Shibboleth asks questions about the interaction of sculpture and space, about architecture and the values it enshrines, and about the shaky ideological foundations on which Western notions of modernity are built.."
Yep, it's a crack in the floor.
The Tate has taken pains to assure visitors that they will be coming to see a real crack and that it's not done with mirrors.
Lunch was a more inviting prospect than this, so I bought a camomile tea and a chocolate muffin. And was disappointed again. I should've learned by now, English American-style muffins don't make you feel better for having eaten them. They're too dry, though for once that wasn't the problem. As soon as this muffin's wrapper was removed, it ceased to be a muffin and became a collection of tasty crumbs. I think I expended more calories eating it than it contained and the resulting patterns of chocolate on my face had no artistic merit whatsoever.
There was something good to be found though. Louise Bourgeois's Maman has returned to the Tate Modern, this time standing calmly outside the building.
Woo, spider!