TateShots

Issue 23: Twitter With: Marina Abramović joins us to answer your questions

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 12:00:00 BST

TateShots' army of Twitter friends sent in questions for uncompromising performance artist Marina Abramović. We catch up with her while she’s in the UK preparing for a residency at the Manchester International Festival, where she will present performances by some of her favourite artists.

Issue 23: Venice Biennale: An exhibition of art from the 'Axis of Evil'

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 12:00:00 BST

As well as official national pavilions, Venice is home to a number of ‘collateral’ exhibitions and events, often representing people and places that wouldn't normally get a look in. Former Tate curator Jemima Montagu is presenting an exhibition of work by artists from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan – famously caricatured by George W. Bush as the ‘Axis of Evil’. She talks about the thriving visual culture of the region.

East-West Divan until 4 October 2009, Scuola Grande della Misericordia, Venice

Issue 23: New Work: Jeremy Deller's Procession for Manchester

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 12:00:00 BST

Artist Jeremy Deller, who won the Turner Prize in 2004, is getting ready for Procession, a parade he is organising for the Manchester International Festival in July. Comprising over twenty elements from all the boroughs of Greater Manchester, Deller describes the event as a celebration of ‘Northern social surrealism’. Surrealism was certainly the order of the day as TateShots accompanied Deller on a trip to Manchester one sunny afternoon in May. We visited a Scout and Guide marching band that is providing a specially arranged soundtrack, and ended up in a supermarket car park at a clandestine meeting of motoring enthusiasts.

Procession leaves from the Liverpool Road end of Deansgate, Manchester, on 5 July at 2pm.

Issue 23: Venice Biennale: The lives of collectors laid bare by Elmgreen & Dragset

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 12:00:00 BST

In a first for the Venice Biennale, two national pavilions are collaborating on a single project. The catalysts are Michael Elmgreen (Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (Norway), who have worked together since 1995. For the 2009 Biennale, they have converted the neighbouring pavilions into private residences, each one inhabited by an imaginary art collector and their prized possessions. Visitors to the 'family home' witness clues to an imminent break-up, whilst outside the 'bachelor pad' a swimming pool with a dead body floating in it is proof that all is not well. In our interview the duo talk about the stories unfolding around them, and why working and living together didn't quite work out... The Collectors, Danish and Nordic Pavilions, Giardini, Venice until 22 November 2009

Issue 23: Venice Biennale: Francis Upritchard's figures make themselves at home

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 12:00:00 BST

New Zealand-born, London-based artist Francis Upritchardis representing her country at this year's Biennale. Taking over three rooms of a palazzo, 'Save Yourself' is an imaginary landscape populated by strange miniature figures, who seem to belong both in the past and the future. In this film, Francis talks us through the exhibition, and explains what motivates her.< Francis Upritchard: Save Yourself, until 22 November 2009, Fondazione Claudio Buziol, Venice

Issue 23: Venice Biennale: Venice regulars share their views

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 12:00:00 BST

The Venice Biennale is attended by tens of thousands of people, and on the first weekend you can't move for artists, curators and journalists. We asked a number of them, including critic Adrian Searle and artists Richard Wentworth, Bob and Roberta Smith and Francis Upritchard, to tell us what Venice means to them.

Issue 22: Work in Focus: Author Mark Haddon on The Busy Life by Jean Dubuffet

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 12:00:00 BST

Author and artist Mark Haddon, best known for his novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’, came to Tate Modern to look at one of his favourite paintings: The Busy Life 1953 by Jean Dubuffet. This work belongs to a series that Dubuffet called ‘beaten pastes’ because the main paint layer resembled butter, into which he scratched the graffiti-like figures. In this film, Haddon shares his love for Dubuffet’s technique: a celebration of mark-making and texture.

Issue 22: Long Weekend 09: I scream, you scream, we all scream for Paola Pivi

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 12:00:00 BST

For The Long Weekend 2009 Italian artist Paola Pivi created 1000, a work in which one thousand people descend en masse to the mezzanine bridge at Tate Modern, then scream in ear-splitting unison. The artist, preferring not to appear in this film, asked us to present the event without commentary, purely as if the viewer was there. We let 1000 ‘scream’ for itself.

Issue 22: Long Weekend 09: Michelangelo Pistoletto takes a sculpture for a walk

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 12:00:00 BST

A key artist of the arte povera movement, Michelangelo Pistoletto came to London in May to recreate a seminal 1966 performance in which he rolled a ball of newspapers through the streets of Turin. At Tate Modern he pasted together newspapers to make a two-metre sphere, and accompanied by his wife Maria and a huge crowd, took it out into the city. We follow Pistoletto as he travels over the Millennium Bridge, through the streets, then back to Tate Modern on a boat. The artist also explains the political and personal significance of staging such an action today.

Issue 22: Long Weekend 09: Skateboarders making their mark on film

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 12:00:00 BST

The LA-based artist Jennifer West came to Tate Modern to create a new film live in the gallery. Instead of cameras, her process involves manipulating and making marks on the celluloid film itself. For this performance ink-covered film strips were laid out along the ramp of Tate Modern’s turbine hall. A team of skateboarders then traversed the slope, their wheels scraping marks into the celluloid. West then spent the rest of the night splicing the film together, ready to showcase the psychedelic patterns created by the skaters’ movements.

Issue 22: Venice Biennale 09: Venice highlights with art critic Adrian Searle

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 12:00:00 BST

It’s that time again, when the international art community packs its bags and heads for Venice. The 53^rd Venice Biennale is now open, and in this film, made in collaboration with the Guardian newspaper, art critic Adrian Searle presents his roundup. What’s hot? What’s not? Find out here. Check out the next issue of TateShots for more Venice coverage and artist interviews.

Issue 22: Long Weekend 09: Bodyspacemotionthings by Robert Morris

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 12:00:00 BST

Interactive art was a new concept when the exhibition Bodyspacemotionthings first went on show at the Tate in 1971. Created by the American artist Robert Morris, it consists of a series of beams, weights, platforms, rollers, tunnels and ramps that people can clamber all over. It closed just four days after opening, due to safety concerns over the wildly enthusiastic reaction of the audience. For The Long Weekend 2009 the exhibition has been recreated at Tate Modern using stronger, modern materials. In this film we watch the reaction of today’s visitors, and speak to curators Catherine Wood and Kathy Noble about Morris’s vision and influence.

Issue 21: A Comic Take: A therapy session for unhappy artworks

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 BST

We invited comedian Miriam Elia to present a personal take on the Rodchenko & Popova exhibition at Tate Modern. The result is this sketch. As Miriam explains: “Shapes featuring in Russian Constructivist paintings often suffer from anxiety disorders, distress and problems relating to other shapes. This short film is an extract from a longer sequence of therapy sessions, where shapes from Popova’s paintings made a positive decision to try and develop a workable relationship. Their natural asymmetry had led to almost irreconcilable differences, and it was a HUGE step forward to even have them sitting in the same room.”

Miriam Elia is a fully qualified AAC (Asymmetrical Abstract–shape Counsellor), who trained at the London College of Varying Degrees. She is also a stand-up comedian, and a contributor to BBC Radio 4’s ‘Arturart’.

Contains strong language.

Issue 21: The Unilever Series: Christopher Eccleston tells an apocalyptic tale

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 BST

In Dominique Gonzales-Foerster’s installation for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, TH.2058, the artist imagines Tate Modern 50 years hence. Tate launched a competition, inviting people to respond to her apocalyptic vision of the future by writing a short story. We chose one of the best entries to be turned into a short film, narrated by Dr Who’s Christopher Eccleston. Director Sam Blair comments: "I like how the story invents this secretive, murky, scientific conspiracy of silence that is keeping the population literally in the dark."

Issue 21: Meet the Artist: Astronomy meets art in the work of Katie Paterson

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 BST

Katie Paterson’s latest work is a map of ‘dead stars’ – 27,000 of them, or all that have so far been observed and recorded. But, as she tells us in this film, if you were going to make a map of all the dead stars it would be the size of the Earth. We follow the artist as she visits an observatory to talk to Professor Ofer Lahav about the mysteries of the universe. Katie Paterson’s work was featured in the Altermodern exhibition at Tate Britain.

Issue 21: In Focus: Collector Anthony d'Offay on meeting Andy Warhol

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 BST

The collector and gallerist Anthony d’Offay talks to TateShots about his memories of working with Andy Warhol. D’offay recently gave 725 works of art to be shared between the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. His collection will be shown in a touring exhibition called Artist Rooms.

Issue 21: Current Exhibition: Rodchenko and Popova: Defining Constructivism

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 BST

Tate Modern’s exhibition explores the work of Aleksandr Rodchenko and Liubov Popova, who sparked a revolution in Russian art. The Constructivists challenged the idea of the work of art as a unique commodity, and believed that it could contribute to everyday life through design, architecture, theatre and film. In this interview, one of the show's curators Ben Borthwick looks at how their paintings, however abstract, can still be mapped back to things that exist in the real world.

Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism, Tate Modern, until 17 May

Issue 21: Current Exhibition: Art forger John Myatt on Glenn Brown’s reproductive vision

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 BST

The inspiration for Glenn Brown’s extraordinary paintings lies in the art of appropriation. In his hands printed images taken from books or postcards, old masters and science fiction illustrations undergo audacious transition; they become flat, colours shift and the originals become a memory. Brown’s work exaggerates these processes to an extreme degree. In this film, John Myatt, a renowned forger, whose exploits have even landed him a spell in prison, takes a trip to Tate Liverpool to contemplate Brown’s work.

Glenn Brown, Tate Liverpool, until 10 May

Issue 20: Performance: Messing about on the River Thames

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT

On a rare, almost miraculously sunny day in London, TateShots and a group of art lovers boarded a boat and sailed out onto the Thames. We were there to see a work by Jean-Pascal Flavien and Julien Bismuth, the splashily named Plouf!, which was first performed in the sea off Rio de Janeiro. The work consists of Flavien and Bismuth, who are on another, smaller boat, reading through a megaphone, signing semaphore and flashing morse code: a poetic tale of loneliness and loss at sea.

Performed as part of UBS Openings: Saturday Live, 21 February 2009

Issue 20: Current Exhibition: Soweto Kinch takes on Tate Britain

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Tate Britain invited jazz MC and saxophonist Soweto Kinch to help them produce a ‘sonic trail’ around works from the Collection and the current exhibition, Altermodern. The result is a mix of rap, spoken word and musical soundscapes which imagine an apocalyptic future. Here, Soweto gives us a preview and tells us how the artwork inspired him.

Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, Tate Britain, until 26 April 2009. Soweto's trail, created with young people from the Visual Dialogues programme, is available free from the Rotunda Information desk.

Issue 20: Work in Focus: Nigel Cooke's New Accursed Art Club

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT

New Accursed Art Club 2007 by Nigel Cooke is a new addition to the Tate Collection. When the artist came in to our conservation department recently, he took time out to show us how the painting was made. By taking photographs at stages throughout its production, Cooke has a visual record of everything that came and went during the process. He describes it as a type of archaeology as buildings, figures and landscapes are erased and compositions reformed along the way.

Issue 20: Twitter With...: David Hockney answers your questions

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT

For a new series, the legendary David Hockney invited us into his studio for a chat. But in a twist, it wasn’t TateShots asking the questions. Instead, we got you, loyal viewers, to do the hard work for us via the medium of Twitter. Is he a geek? Does he like swimming? What does he think of the credit crunch? All will be revealed. Thanks to all who submitted questions (sorry that we couldn’t get through them all), and remember to follow TateShots on Twitter to find out which artist will be next.

Issue 20: Current Exhibition: The animal inside Marcus Coates

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT

For this film, we went bird-watching with the artist Marcus Coates. His new video, The Plover's Wing 2008, is on show at Tate Britain during the Tate Triennial, so it seemed apt. Coates knows a lot about birds, he can mimic their calls, interpret their behaviour and, he says, even converse with them... in the spirit world. For his art, he films himself entering a trance like state that he calls ‘becoming animal’, and attempts to solve people’s problems by seeking answers from the animal spirits that he encounters. In this latest work, he visits the mayor of a town in Israel, and answers a question about the crisis there.

Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, until 26 April 2009, Tate Britain

Issue 20: Special Feature: Remembering the art and humour of Angus Fairhurst

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Angus Fairhurst, who died last year, created art that was funny, quietly complex, and which eschewed a ‘signature style’. A new exhibition at the Arnolfini in Bristol gives the public the chance to see a huge range of work together for the first time, including pieces that show off his renowned sense of humour. One of those, Gallery Connections 1991-6 which is in the Tate collection, involved him simultaneously calling two London galleries before putting the phones together and recording the confusion that ensued. For this film, we asked a number of people who knew Angus, including artists Gavin Turk and Mat Collishaw, to tell us their memories of him. We also speak to his gallerist Sadie Coles, who was on the receiving end of his prank calls…

Issue 19 NYC Special: In the Studio: Lawrence Weiner on working with words

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

A New Yorker born and raised, Lawrence Weiner’s mission in life is to get straight to the point. It’s a quality you cannot miss in his artwork, in which big ideas are communicated using the minimum of words. In this film, Weiner tells us why he’s against Helvetica, and how he came to design his own font. He also shows us around his studio and allows us a sneak preview of projects that are still on the drawing board.His work is included in the exhibition Colour Chart, which comes to Tate Liverpool in May 2009.

Issue 19 NYC Special: In the Studio: Complex patterns unravelled by Terry Winters

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

TateShots visited the Matthew Marks gallery to see Terry Winters’ exhibition, ‘Knotted Graphs’. The energetic, brightly coloured paintings on show at the gallery are in contrast with the quiet resonances and ‘economical’ mark-making that can be seen in work at his Manhattan studio. In this film, Winters tells us how scientific patterns provide the starting point for his explorations in paint.

Issue 19 NYC Special: In the Studio: Artistic industry in the studio of Jeff Koons

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

There are not many places on earth where paintings of Popeye mingle with giant lobsters, or where a team can scheme to hang a full-sized train from a crane. But as this episode of TateShots proves, anything is possible in the studio of Jeff Koons.Fresh from exhibiting his work at the Palace of Versailles (the first time a contemporary artist has been invited to exhibit there), the boundary-breaking artist gave us a whistle-stop tour of his factory-like facility. Later in the year, his work will appear at Tate Modern – first as part of the Artist Rooms collection display, then in the exhibition Sold Out.

Issue 19 NYC Special: Meet the Artist: Marina Abramovic on her passion for performance art

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Marina Abramović is, to many people, the definitive performance artist. Her works test the limits of the human body, and even the endurance of audiences who may witness performances lasting hours, days, or weeks. In this film we join her in her magnificent yet minimal apartment, where she discusses the amount of work that goes into staging one of her ambitious pieces, and why it’s never easy to explain what she does.

Issue 19 NYC Special: In the Studio: Concentrating on colour in Byron Kim's studio

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Byron Kim is a painter born in California, who lives and works in Brooklyn. He invited us to his studio where he works quietly on a range of paintings primarily concerned with colour. Here he shows us a number of works in progress – patches of sky distilled into tonal blocks; a detailed study of the palms of his hands - and demonstrates Delacroix’s Shadow, a piece that uses a real shadow to represent colour. An example of his celebrated Synecdoche series, which depicts skin tones, will be on show at Tate Liverpool as part of the Colour Chart exhibition from May 2009.

Issue 19 NYC Special: Meet the Artist: Getting inside the head of Jim Dine

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

A painter, sculptor, photographer, illustrator, performance artist and poet, Jim Dine is arguably one of the most prolific artists working today. He took TateShots on a tour of his latest exhibition at Pace Wildenstein, New York, a labyrinthine show that touches on nearly every aspect of his life to date. In this film he talks about his his love of Pinocchio, tools, and why he can do nothing else but make art.

Issue 19 NYC Special: Meet the Artist: An extraordinary day in the life of Marcel Dzama

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Canadian artist Marcel Dzama is known for producing small watercolour and pen and ink drawings, like those represented in the Tate collection. For this reason, TateShots was surprised to find him in a studio lot in Brooklyn, co-directing a big budget music video for the band Department of Eagles. Later, to celebrate the release of his new book, Marcel and his friend, film director and Jackass creator Spike Jonze, signed copies for fans at the David Zwirner gallery. He also invited us back to his studio to reflect on his ‘busy day’, and we witnessed some of the weird and wonderful creations that inhabit his world.

Issue 19 NYC Special: Meet the Artist: Discovering Cory Arcangel's computer world

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

TateShots met Cory Arcangel at Team Gallery, New York, where he showed us around his exhibition Adult Contemporary. Arcangel uses the term ‘computer nerd’ hesitantly, but his work certainly appeals to our inner-geek. There’s his modified PlayStation controller, which does nothing but deliver gutter balls during a bowling game, and a film that relies heavily on special effects from a vintage machine bought from eBay. His work will appear at Tate Liverpool in May 2009, as part of the Colour Chart exhibition.

Issue 18: Current Exhibition: Make Your Own Xmas, says Bob and Roberta Smith

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Tate Britain invited Bob and Roberta Smith to decorate their Christmas Tree. Smith decided to make a new tree out of recycled material collected from the gallery. Continuing the eco-theme, he invited his friend Tim Siddall from Electric Pedals to engineer a system for powering the Christmas lights - using a selection of second-hand bicycles. We caught up with Bob and Tim in Bob's studio in East London, where they were preparing for the exhibition and sung us a song. Later, we asked enthusiastic bike-peddlers about their best and worst memories of Christmas.

Make Your Own Xmas, Tate Britain, until 4 January 2009

Issue 18: Trailer: A preview of forthcoming TateShots from the Big Apple

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Here's a packed preview of what happened when we took TateShots across the pond. Look out for all the episodes, featuring artists such as Jeff Koons, Lawrence Weiner, Marina Abramovic and Marcel Dzama (pictured), in a special edition of TateShots coming in the new year.

Issue 18: Performance: Shadows of Light (Music from the Seagram Murals)

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Jim Aitchison is a composer who takes his inspiration directly from visual art. He's currently working on a piece of music in response to Tate Modern's Rothko show. One day in December he brought The Kreutzer Quartet, Michael Thompson and Nicholas Clapton along to the exhibition to improvise amongst Rothko's Seagram Murals. The results will be performed at a special concert to take place in the space in January. We were there to ask him about the challenge of translating paint into sound.

Shadows of Light (Music from the Seagram Murals),Tate Modern, Monday 26 January 2009

Rothko, Tate Modern, until 1 February 2009

Issue 18: Current Exhibition: A journey in the company of Nicholas Hlobo

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Uhambo is the name of the new show at Tate Modern by South African artist Nicholas Hlobo (the title means 'journey' in Xhosa, his native tongue). Soon after installing the exhibition, Hlobo showed us around. The work contains materials ranging from ribbon to rubber - even iPod earphones - creating pieces that are as appealingly tactile as they are to the eye. "I view the paper as a desert," he says, "it's empty, it's dry, and somehow it needs some life."

Nicholas Hlobo: Uhambo, Tate Modern, until 1 March 2009

Issue 18: Meet the Artist: Thomas Demand takes on the White House

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Who lives in a house like this? That's the question posed by Thomas Demand in his latest work, a series of photographs depicting the Oval Office of the White House, Washington D.C. Demand's photographs have never been quite what they seem, and this series continues his preoccupation with blurring boundaries between the real and unreal. The set was meticulously constructed from cardboard, paper and confetti. It is devoid of humanity; and certain details, like the stars of the American flag, are oddly missing, creating an unnerving atmosphere. The work is on show at Sprueth Magers London, whilst at Tate Modern, visitors can see a work from 2006, Tavern.

Issue 17: Work in Focus: Why Damien Hirst thinks you can't get better than Bacon

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

When Damien Hirst was a kid, he says, ‘All my paintings were like bad Bacons’. We invited Damien to Tate Britain to see the Francis Bacon retrospective. He tells us why he loves the Crucifixion and Head series’: detail that vanishes the closer you get, paint like blood and guts. ‘That’s probably why I love Bacon paintings. When I first saw them they reminded me of places I'd seen in nightmares.’

Francis Bacon Tate Britain, until 4 January 2009

Issue 17: Performance: A rare glimpse of Tate Modern's underground oil tanks

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Laying dormant under the ground adjacent to Tate Modern’s turbine hall, the mammoth Oil Tanks are now a key part of the plans to develop the building over the next five years. As a prelude to the building work, Tate invited artists Bonnie Camplin and Paulina Olowska to create a special tour for a few lucky members of the public. Using light, found objects and their own creations, they give the space a surreal twist, before guiding a group and pointing out their interventions in eerie silence.

UBS Openings: Saturday Live: Bonnie Camplin and Paulina Olowska: Usher We (Down There), Tate Modern, 27 September 2008

Issue 17: Meet the Artist: Julian Schnabel on Humanity Asleep 1982

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

The painter and acclaimed director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Julian Schnabel visited Tate Modern recently, where his work Humanity Asleep 1982 forms part of a new display of paintings from the 1980s. We caught up with him as he encountered the display for the first time, and asked him about his experiments with surface (this one’s made of broken crockery), and how it feels to see the work today.

UBS Openings: Paintings from the 1980s Tate Modern, until 13 April 2009

Issue 17: Current Exhibition: Cildo Meireles and his Meshes of Freedom

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles is currently on show at Tate Modern – the artist’s first UK retrospective. His work is characterised by a high degree of interactivity, as well as recurring motifs of barriers, fencing and mesh. For a special event, Meireles invited members of the public to help create the latest version of his work Meshes of Freedom. He told us about the significance of the work and why art is not just for the eyes.

Cildo Meireles Tate Modern, until 11 January 2009

Issue 17: Current Exhibition: How Heimo Zobernig remixed the Tate Collection

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

He might not be a household name but the Austrian Heimo Zobernig is regarded as one of the most significant European artists working today. For his new show at Tate St Ives Zobernig not only shows his own work, but is also let loose with the Tate Collection, curating an idiosyncratic selection including works by Pablo Picasso, Barbara Hepworth, Marcel Duchamp and many more. Creative Director of Tate St Ives Martin Clark gave us a tour of the show and explains his choices.

Heimo Zobernig and the Tate Collection Tate St Ives, until 11 January 2009

Issue 17: Meet the Architect: Transforming Tate Modern: The architect's vision

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

As one half of architecture superstars Herzog and De Meuron, Jacques Herzog has been behind some of the world’s most spectacular buildings – from Beijing’s Olympic Stadium to the original Tate Modern nearly a decade ago. Plans are now afoot for an ambitious new extension to Tate Modern. TateShots was given privileged access to the architects’ studio in Basel, Switzerland, where work is well underway. In our film, Herzog talks about his excitement to be working on the project, and why TM2 (as the new building is currently known) will stand out in London’s busy skyline.

Issue 16: Current Exhibition: A tour of Rothko at Tate Modern

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 12:00:00 BST

This Autumn Tate Modern presents an exhibition of the late works of Mark Rothko. The show’s curator, Achim Borchardrt-Hume, takes us on a tour featuring the iconic Seagram Murals, Black-Form paintings, and the Black on Grey paintings – the last series made before Rothko’s death in 1970. We find out how much importance Rothko placed on the way his work was displayed, and why these mysterious rectangles of layered pigment hold such enduring appeal.

Rothko, Tate Modern, until 1 February 2009

Issue 16: New Work: A derelict bed-sit becomes a world of crystalised wonder

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 12:00:00 BST

A disused bed-sit amongst the housing estates of South East London would not normally figure in the plans of your average art-tripper, but inside one particular dwelling lies a spectacular installation by British artist Roger Hiorns. For this ambitious piece, organised by Artangel, the artist first sealed the flat then poured in thousands of gallons of boiling hot copper sulphate solution, which slowly crystallised over every surface. TateShots went to find out more.

SEIZURE, 151-189 Harper Road, London SE1, until 2 November 2008

Issue 16: Work in Focus: Designer Peter Saville on Richard Hamilton's Toaster

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 12:00:00 BST

Peter Saville works as a designer and artist, and is the Creative Director of the City of Manchester. It was in Manchester, while working at Factory Records, that he produced iconic record sleeve designs for bands like Joy Division and New Order. He visited Tate Britain to look at a new display of work by ‘Godfather of Pop art’ Richard Hamilton and told us how one of Hamilton’s works called Toaster became a ‘blueprint’ for his own career.

The display Richard Hamilton: The Mediated Image is in Room 26 at Tate Britain

Issue 16: Current Exhibition: Nick Hackworth examines the work of nominees Goshka Macuga and Cathy Wilkes

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 12:00:00 BST

Every year the four artists nominated for the Turner Prize stage an exhibition, giving the public a chance to see their work and join the debate about the best contemporary art in Britain. In the first of a two-part film, art critic Nick Hackworth reviews sculptural installations by prize contenders Goshka Macuga and Cathy Wilkes.

Turner Prize 08, Tate Britain, until 18 January 2009

Issue 16: Current Exhibition: Critic Nick Hackworth introduces nominees Runa Islam and Mark Leckey

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 12:00:00 BST

In our second Turner Prize programme, art critic Nick Hackworth reviews the art of Runa Islam and Mark Leckey, who both work primarily with film. Islam deconstructs the language of cinema using techniques such as slow motion and robotically controlled cameras. Modern-day flaneur Mark Leckey’s key work is a performance-cum-lecture entitled Cinema-in-the-Round, that critiques the nature of the filmed image in popular culture.

Turner Prize 08, Tate Britain, until 18 January 2009

Issue 16: In the Studio: How Michael Landy made a day job out of drawing

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 12:00:00 BST

In his vast, virtually empty studio, in London’s East End, the artist Michael Landy has been hard at work. Seven days a week for the last five months he has obsessively committed himself to drawing portraits of the people around him. Meticulously executed in pencil, these drawings question what it is to capture someone’s likeness. The approach is very different from the large-scale installations that Landy is best known for – such as Scrapheap Services and Semi-Detatched at Tate, or Breakdown, a public performance in which he dramatically destroyed all of his possessions. In this film we follow the progress of a portrait from beginning to end – that of TV presenter Kirsty Wark - and speak to Michael and his various sitters about the motivation behind the project.

Michael Landy's portraits can be seen at Thomas Dane Gallery, London, from October 14 2008

Issue 15: Performance: Unprojectable: an audiovisual feast by Tony Conrad

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:00:00 BST

American artist Tony Conrad employs a battery of amplified strings, film projectors, electric drills and assorted machinery to create a high-octane sonic assault. Unprojectable: Projection and Perspective is a live performance conceived specially for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. The musicians and their unorthodox instruments are visible to the audience only as projections cast onto giant screens. TateShots was there to capture this one-off experience.

Performed at UBS Openings: Saturday Live, 14 June 2008

Issue 15: Current Exhibition: Highlights of the Klimt exhibition at Tate Liverpool

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:00:00 BST

The Gustav Klimt exhibition at Tate Liverpool is a highlight of Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture. We sent art critic Nick Hackworth to see the show, which as well as paintings by Klimt features work by his contemporaries in the Viennese Secession, a progressive group of artists, architects, furniture and fashion designers who shared a common artistic vision.

Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900, Tate Liverpool, until 31 August 2008

Issue 15: Current Exhibition: A show that will run and run, by Martin Creed

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:00:00 BST

An old friend of TateShots, we caught up with Martin Creed once again – this time to talk about his new project at Tate Britain. Work No. 850 consists of runners dodging visitors as they sprint through the gallery as fast as they can. It happens every thirty seconds, jolting this normally serene space for an instant. In this interview, Martin tells us about some of the ideas behind the piece, how it makes him laugh, and why art is ‘just a word’.

Martin Creed: The Duveen Galleries Commission, Tate Britain, until 16 November 2008

Issue 15: Current Exhibition: Nicholas Serota tours the Cy Twombly show at Tate Modern

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:00:00 BST

Tate’s Director Nicholas Serota gives us a behind the scenes tour of the Cy Twombly exhibition as he makes the final adjustments to the hang just before opening. A long-standing fan, Serota talks about Twombly’s technique, his relationship to Turner, and how the artist, now in his eighties, is still producing some of the most vital work of his career.

Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, Tate Modern, until 14 September 2008

Issue 15: Meet the Artist: Reading between the lines: tabloids and art

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:00:00 BST

Gustav Metzger’s career has spanned sixty years of art and political activism. He pioneered Auto-Destructive art and famously held an ‘art strike’ between 1977-1980. He was also involved in the radical Fluxus movement. In 1962 his simple idea of displaying all the pages from a popular national newspaper as an art installation was rejected from an exhibition for being too politically charged. This year Tate Modern invited him to restage the piece, and he told us why newspapers should be held up for scrutiny.

Shown as part of UBS Openings: The Long Weekend 26-28 May 2008

Issue 15: In the Studio: Paula Rego on the fine art of printmaking

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:00:00 BST

TateShots was invited to observe Paula Rego and the team at The Curwen Studio in Cambridgeshire as they set about turning one of her drawings into an editioned print. Our film captures Rego at work and she tells us why drawing and printmaking is so important to her practice.

A display marking the 50^th anniversary of The Curwen Studio, including Paula’s print, will be on show at Tate Britain from September 2008

Issue 14: Meet the Artist: Juergen Teller on shooting models

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:00:00 BST

Photographer Juergen Teller turned his lens on the fashion industry with his Go-Sees series in 1999. Weary of the hype generated by model agencies desperate to sell him the ‘next big thing’, he decided to take the picture of every girl that came to see him – on the doorstep of his studio. In this interview for TateShots, Teller tells us how the resulting photographs expose the troubling power of the male photographer. He also challenges us to a game of table tennis.

Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography, Tate Modern, until 31 August 2008

Issue 14: Meet the Artist: Sunil Gupta on 'Mr Malhotra’s Party'

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:00:00 BST

Indian-born artist Sunil Gupta is showing two photographs from his series Mr Malhotra’s Party at Tate Modern’s Street & Studio exhibition. The pictures depict gay men on the streets of Delhi where homosexuality is still illegal and nightclubs for gay men have to masquerade as private parties, hence the title for these photographs. In this interview, Gupta talks about the politics and theatre behind his work.

Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography, Tate Modern, until 31 August 2008

Issue 14: Current Exhibition: Adam Chodzko takes us around his new show at Tate St Ives

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:00:00 BST

Adam Chodzko takes us on a tour of his new show at Tate St Ives. Amongst the pieces on show are a pair of hiker’s walking sticks containing a hidden compartment for vials of ecstasy (bringing new meaning to the notion of nature and the sublime), and a slide-show about one of his poetic interventions into everyday life in which he bought up all the green clothes from a charity shop in his home town in Kent and swapped them for all the red clothes at a thrift store in New York. His work is as much about the imaginative narratives it conjures in the viewer’s mind as it is about physical objects in a gallery space.

Adam Chodzko: Proxigean Tide, Tate St Ives, until 21 September 2008

Issue 14: Current Exhibition: Graffiti grows up at Tate Modern

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:00:00 BST

Tate Modern invited a group of Madrid-based street artists to make work in the streets surrounding the gallery. In this film we follow the artists as they respond to the challenge. With inflatable tongues, modified shop signs and photorealistic spray painting, Banksy it isn’t. You can take a walking tour of the project by picking up a map from the gallery, or downloading a pdf. The tour is part of a bigger exhibition of Street Art at Tate Modern this summer.

Street Art, Tate Modern, until 25 August 2008 Sponsored by Nissan Qashqai

Issue 14: Performance: Crowds gather for lettuce-chopping spectacular

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:00:00 BST

American artist Alison Knowles first made a salad in the name of art at London's ICA Gallery in 1962. Make a Salad is what the Flux artists termed an ‘event score’: a written instruction that can be acted out and changed according to the context in which it is performed. In Tate Modern's giant Turbine Hall, Knowles has given the work a mammoth new dimension. TateShots followed her as she went on a huge salad shopping spree then, with the help of a team of chefs, prepared a meal for hundreds of visitors to the gallery's Long Weekend festival.

Filmed as part of UBS Openings: The Long Weekend 2008, Tate Modern, 24-26 May 2008

Issue 14: Performance: Monty Python meets art with ‘football on stilts’ and more

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:00:00 BST

Football on stilts, the flipper race, invisible hurdling... just some of the sports that took place at Tate's very own Flux Olympiad, part of a three-day festival of art and performance at Tate Modern. The Olympiad was first conceived by founding Fluxus artist George Maciunas in the 1960s, though never realised until now. The aim of the Fluxus group was to instill artistic values into every part of life, and they went about it with a good dose of Dadaistic humour. TateShots asked artist, sportsman and Fluxus expert Tom Russotti to commentate on the day's activities and tell us about the history of the event.

Filmed during UBS Openings: The Long Weekend 2008, Tate Modern, 24-26 May 2008

Issue 13: Meet the Artist: Dorothy Cross tells us about her iconic 'Virgin Shroud'

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 BST

Irish artist Dorothy Cross explains how she made ‘Virgin Shroud’, by stitching together a cow-hide, complete with udders, and her grandmother's old wedding dress. The extraordinary sculpture that resulted is a favourite in Tate’s Collection and is currently on show at Tate Liverpool.

Issue 13: Performance: Santiago Sierra stages a provocative work at Tate Modern

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 BST

Whether casting sculptures from human excrement or paying junkie prostitutes to have a line tattooed on their backs, Spanish artist Santiago Sierra is a provocateur whose art raise headlines. We filmed his latest performance piece at Tate Modern and asked him about this and other controversial works.

Contains some strong language.

Issue 13: Tate Tracks: New Young Pony Club inspired by a work by Martin Creed

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 BST

Tate invited the band New Young Pony Club to walk around the gallery and find a work of art that would inspire them to write a track. They picked a neon light sculpture by British artist Martin Creed. The band’s founding members Tahita Bulmer and Andy Spence talked to TateShots about turning art into music.

You can hear the full track on the Tate Tracks website.

Issue 13: Meet the Artist: Michael Craig-Martin looks back at some of his key works

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 BST

In the early 1970s Michael Craig-Martin created his famous sculpture An Oak Tree. The work consists of a glass of water standing on a shelf. On the wall next to it a text by the artist argues that, despite what your eyes tell you, the glass of water is in fact an oak tree. In the spirit of Duchamp, Craig-Martin provokes questions about what we understand to be art and unpicks the relationship between a real object and its depiction. Looking back over his long career he explains why the same ideas drive him today as when he first started out.

Issue 13: In the Studio: A kaleidoscope of colour in Fiona Rae's studio

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 BST

Fiona Rae invited us into her London studio where she was putting the finishing touches to works for her new exhibition at the Timothy Taylor Gallery. Her abstract canvases are an exuberant collision of painting styles: encrusted surfaces, brushy swathes and watery pools, along with kitsch cartoon elements, which somehow coalesce despite their differences. She talked to TateShots about her enduring passion for paint.

Issue 13: Meet the Artist: Bob and Roberta Smith on slogans for life

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 BST

Bob and Roberta Smith is in fact just one person, otherwise known as British artist Patrick Brill. His paintings look like signboards, featuring slogans in brightly coloured lettering. They have the air of revolutionary statements, riffing on life, politics and art, though with a tinge of absurdity that leaves you wondering just what the message really is. He introduces the paintings that the Tate now has in its Collection.

Issue 12: Current Exhibition: Peter Doig shows us around his exhibition

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Peter Doig’s retrospective at Tate Britain has been called ‘the most enthralling show in town’. He took us behind the scenes as he finalised the hang just before it opened, and showed us his private collection of photographs that provide the starting point for his mesmerising paintings.

Peter Doig,Tate Britain, until 27 April 2008

Issue 12: In the Studio: Welcome to the dead-pan world of Harrison and Wood

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Bristol-based duo Paul Harrison and John Wood could be described as an art-world equivalent to Laurel and Hardy. Their videos, showing their dead-pan antics as they dangle precariously from a ladder, slide on office chairs around the back of a moving van, and submit themselves to a drenching from dozens of watering cans, are both hilarious and thought provoking. They invited TateShots to meet them at their studio.

Issue 12: Current Exhibition: Stanley Spencer's uniquely British vision

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) is best known for his huge paintings that treat British village life in the manner of Renaissance frescoes, such as his masterpiece The Resurrection, Cookham, in which the lives (and deaths) of ordinary folk are tenderly offered up to our gaze. Author and Spencer fan Sîan Pattendon visits the current exhibition at Tate Liverpool.

Stanley Spencer, Tate Liverpool, until 27 April 2008

Issue 12: Work in Focus: John Squire on why he loves Cy Twombly's paintings

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

John Squire of the Stone Roses is both a musician and an artist. He gets up close to Cy Twombly’s epic canvases ‘The Four Seasons’ to explain why the American painter is one of his all-time heroes. A retrospective of Twombly’s work will be at Tate Modern this summer.

Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, Tate Modern, 19 June - 14 September 2008

Issue 12: Performance: A Man in a Room, Gambling, by Gavin Bryars and Juan Muñoz

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Composer Gavin Bryars introduces A Man in a Room, Gambling, his musical collaboration with the artist Juan Muñoz. The project mixes Bryars’ score with the recorded voice of the artist as he reads texts on strategies for manipulating cards when gambling.

The exhibition Juan Muñoz: A Retrospective is at Tate Modern until 27 April 2008

Issue 12: Performance: Why David Lamelas has Time on his hands

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

In this performance at Tate Modern, Argentinian artist David Lamelas sets out to capture the essence of time. Though the project was created in 1970, it was only recently acquired for the Tate Collection, one of the first examples of Tate buying a performance in the form of set of instructions explaining how to restage it, rather than a physical object.

Performed at UBS Openings: Live: The Living Currency 26-27 January 2008

Issue 11: Meet the Artist: Sanford Biggers presents his homage to Hip hop

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Sanford Biggers’ video features the artist and friends taking part in an improvised bell-ringing ceremony at a Zen temple in Japan. As Biggers explains, a number of the metal bells used in the video were fabricated from melted-down hip-hop jewellery. He talks to TateShots about making this work, and the connections he sees between the traditions of African-American hip-hop and Buddhism.

Illuminations, Tate Modern, until 24 February 2008

Issue 11: Performance: Crowd control in force at Tate Modern

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Recently at Tate Modern, unwitting gallery-goers were confronted by mounted police who rode back and forth, corralling people and controlling their movements. Cuban artist Tania Bruguera talks about her latest performance work and explains why she’s not interested in presenting images that can be viewed at a safe distance, but instead wants people to personally experience the dynamics of power.

UBS Openings: Live: The Living Currency, took place at Tate Modern, 26-27 January 2008

Issue 11: Current Exhibition: A tour of Niki de Saint Phalle's first UK exhibition

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

We preview the first UK exhibition of the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle, which opens this month at Tate Liverpool. Beautiful, flamboyant, daring, provocative and fiercely independent, she emerged in the 1960s as a powerful and original figure in the highly masculine international arts world. The exhibition includes her acclaimed Shooting Pictures, made by firing a .22 rifle into bags of paint strapped to a canvas, as well as her brightly coloured, exuberant sculptures of enormous women, which she christened the ‘Nanas’.

Niki de Saint Phalle, Tate Liverpool, 1 February - 5 May 2008

Issue 11: Current Exhibition: The grand illusions of Juan Muñoz

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Muñoz described himself as a storyteller, and often arranged his figures and objects in carefully staged configurations that hint at unsettling and ambiguous scenarios. One of the last things he made before his untimely death in 2001 at the age of 48 was a vast stage-set-like installation for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Now Tate Modern is presenting the first major retrospective of his work in the UK. Curator Sheena Wagstaff offers an overview of the exhibition.

Juan Muñoz: a Retrospective, Tate Modern, until 27 April 2008

Issue 11: Meet the Artist: Lida Abdul describes a 'beautiful encounter with chance'

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Afghan artist Lida Abdul describes the chance encounter that became the basis for her elegiac film Dome. Abdul calls her pieces ‘anti-monuments’, and in Dome we see a small boy dancing alone in the centre of a bombed-out building in Kabul. The boy’s circling movements trace the shape of the roofless dome as he looks up at the sky, then comes the sinister throbbing of whirling rotor blades as a helicopter passes overhead.

Illuminations, Tate Modern, until 24 February 2008

Issue 11: Story of a Masterpiece: The hidden emotion behind a masterpiece of war

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Paul Nash served as an official artist in the Second World War. His painting Totes Meer, German for ‘dead sea’, was inspired by a graveyard for wrecked aircraft at Cowley in Oxfordshire. Journalist Simon Grant visits the site to explore the origins of this work and discovers that as well as being a compelling memorial to the ravages of war, it may symbolise a more personal history of lost love.

Totes Meer is currently on display at Tate Britain.

Issue 10: New Work: Peace on Earth (2007): The Tate Britain Christmas tree

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Every year Tate Britain commissions a contemporary artist to design its Christmas Tree. This year Fiona Banner decorated the tree with 123 handmade kit models of all the world’s fighter planes currently in service, anywhere in the world. She showed us around her studio, where she has been making model planes for the last 20 years, as she explained her alternative Christmas message.

Issue 10: Meet the Artist: Jeremy Deller at the Turner Prize Retrospective

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Jeremy Deller talks about the two works that helped him win the Turner Prize in 2004, a wall drawing called The History of the World, a sort of mad-professor’s mind-map of the history of Britain through music; and a film called Memory Bucket that he made during a visit to Texas and which explores American paranoia.

The Turner Prize: a Retrospective, until 6 January 2008, Tate Britain

Issue 10: Performance: Mario Ybarra Jr and the art of the barbershop

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:00:00 GMT

In amongst the galleries at Tate Modern you might come across a barbershop, complete with barber’s chairs, checkerboard floor and striped red and white pole at the entrance. This is Sweeney Tate (2007), an art installation named in homage to the legendary demon barber, and modelled on a real barbershop in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. We filmed artist Mario Ybarra Jr as he launched a one-day barber’s competition at Sweeney Tate.

Sweeney Tate is one of the works in the exhibition The World as a Stage, at Tate Modern until 1 January 2008

Issue 10: Performance: Jude Law stars in a film that doesn't exist

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:00:00 GMT

One morning in November Jude Law walked through Borough Market, just down the road from Tate Modern, and bought some fish. It was a performance for a ‘real-time movie’, in which Law and a cast of extras mingled with the market crowds, following a carefully plotted script. But the movie will never be made. Pawel Althamer, the artist behind the project, is interested in the way real life and the fictional world of cinema intersect. In preparation for Jude’s real life performance he commissioned a genuine movie trailer that was shown in cinemas to advertise the event. The idea was that the trailer you saw on the screens would be re-enacted live by Jude Law at Borough Market. TateShots was there to follow the action.

Real Time Movie was commissioned for the exhibition The World as a Stage, Tate Modern, until 1 January 2008

Issue 10: Meet the Artist: Linder Sterling on art and punk rock

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:00:00 GMT

British artist Linder Sterling is probably best known for the record sleeve she designed for Orgasm Addict by the Buzzcocks (1977), showing a naked woman with an iron for a head and grinning mouths instead of nipples. Her photo-montages, combining images from pornographic magazines with pictures from women’s magazines, make a powerful feminist statement. A group of these works have just been bought for Tate’s Collection and are now on show at Tate Britain, where Linder met us to talk about art and punk rock.

Issue 10: Meet the Artist: Grenville Davey at the Turner Prize Retrospective

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Grenville Davey was considered the outsider when he won the £20,000 Turner Prize back in 1992, beating Alison Wilding, Damien Hirst, and David Tremlett. Fifteen years on, we filmed Davey as he installed his sculptures for the Turner Prize Retrospective at Tate Britain, and asked him how winning the prize had affected him.

The Turner Prize: a Retrospective, until 6 January 2008, Tate Britain

Issue 9: Meet the Artist: Mike Nelson, Turner Prize nominee

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Mike Nelson’s labyrinthine installations, made of interconnecting corridors and chambers, are intentionally disorientating. In his new work for the Turner Prize, the corridors contain peepholes through which we spy four, mirrored rooms. Each offers the same illusory vista of desert sand dunes and infinitely reflecting lights. Nelson talks about this and other projects.

The Turner Prize 2007, Tate Liverpool, 19 October 2007 - 13 January 2008

Issue 9: Meet the Artist: Mark Wallinger, Turner Prize nominee

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Mark Wallinger’s contribution to this year’s Turner Prize is Sleeper (2004-05), a film of a performance in which, over a period of 10 nights, he dressed in a bear suit and wandered aimlessly around an art gallery in Berlin, startling unsuspecting passers-by. He relives the long nights for TateShots.

The Turner Prize 2007, Tate Liverpool, 19 October 2007 - 13 January 2008

Issue 9: Current Exhibition: Curator Frances Morris on meeting Louise Bourgeois

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Louise Bourgeois is one of the world’s most respected sculptors. Over a long career she has worked through most of the twentieth century’s avant-garde artistic movements from abstraction to realism, yet has remained uniquely individual and powerfully inventive. Curator Frances Morris presents an overview of this retrospective and introduces archive footage showing Bourgeois at home in New York as she discusses plans for the giant spider and towers that were the very first Turbine Hall commission for Tate Modern in 2000.

Louise Bourgeois, Tate Modern, 10 October 2007 - 20 January 2008

Issue 9: Performance: A living picture by Ulla von Brandenburg

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Ulla von Brandenburg is interested in the idea of the tableau vivant, or 'living picture'. Popular in the nineteenth century, the tableau vivant was a combination of fine art and theatre, with live models carefully posed and lit in a composition like that of a painting or photograph. In this performance, a group of actors present a tableau vivant, while miming a song sung in German by the artist herself, to disconcerting effect. More of von Brandenburg’s work can be seen in The World as a Stage at Tate Modern.

The World as a Stage, Tate Modern, 24 October 2007 - 1 January 2008

Issue 9: New Work: I'm only acting in it (2007) by Roman Ondák

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

In this film, we follow what happened when Slovakian artist Roman Ondák asked people who had never seen him to draw his portrait based on a verbal description. Like a game of Chinese whispers, the resulting portraits reveal the curious distortions of language and memory. The drawings are on show in the exhibition The World as a Stage at Tate Modern.

The World as a Stage, Tate Modern, 24 October 2007 - 1 January 2008

Issue 9: Meet the Artist: Nathan Coley, Turner Prize nominee

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

‘There will be no miracles here’, reads the illuminated signboard in Nathan Coley’s section of the Turner Prize exhibition. It’s one of a number of works Coley is presenting that explore the idea of faith in an era of moral uncertainty. He talks us through his show.

The Turner Prize 2007, Tate Liverpool, 19 October 2007 – 13 January 2008

Issue 8: Meet the Artist: Mika Rottenberg on her installation Mary's Cherries

Fri, 5 Oct 2007 12:00:00 BST

Mika Rottenberg’s mesmerising video installations are humorous and surrealistic. In Mary’s Cherries (2005) three female wrestlers take part in a bizarre production line, turning red painted fingernails into maraschino cherries. The video is showing as part of The Irresistible Force, in Tate Modern’s Level 2 Gallery, a dedicated space for emerging international artists. Rottenberg talks about her ideas and the process of making the video.

The Irresistible Force, Tate Modern, 20 September - 25 November 2007

Issue 8: Performance: Matei Bejenaru shows the many faces of Romania

Fri, 5 Oct 2007 12:00:00 BST

Matei Bejenaru put out a call to fellow Romanian nationals, asking them to gather as a crowd outside Tate Modern to take part in a public performance. Here he introduces his own film of the event, Together (2007). Bejenaru is one of the artists in the exhibition The Irresistible Force, at Tate Modern, where he is showing a work called Travelling Guide (2005), an unofficial guide for Romanians seeking to enter and work in the United Kingdom illegally.

The Irresistible Force, Tate Modern, 20 September - 25 November 2007

Issue 8: Current Exhibition: Art critic Louisa Buck's Turner Prize highlights

Fri, 5 Oct 2007 12:00:00 BST

This year’s Turner Prize exhibition opens later this month at Tate Liverpool. Meanwhile Tate Britain is mounting a retrospective of all the previous winners since the prize began in 1984. Journalist and former Turner-Prize judge Louisa Buck offers her highlights.

The Turner Prize: A Retrospective, Tate Britain, 2 October 2007 - 6 January 2008

Issue 8: Meet the Artist: Keith Tyson at the Turner Prize Retrospective

Fri, 5 Oct 2007 12:00:00 BST

Keith Tyson won the Turner Prize in 2002, the year the then culture minister Kim Howells caused a media storm by describing the entries as ‘cold, mechanical, conceptual, bullshit’. Tyson talks about the effect winning had on him, and discusses the works he’s currently showing in the Turner Prize Retrospective, including The Thinker (After Rodin), a black hexagonal column containing a bank of computers that emit a constant hum, first shown in the 2002 exhibition.

The Turner Prize: A Retrospective, Tate Britain, 2 October 2007 - 6 January 2008

Issue 8: Meet the Artist: Grayson Perry at the Turner Prize Retrospective

Fri, 5 Oct 2007 12:00:00 BST

Grayson Perry was the surprise winner of the Turner Prize in 2003. Accepting his award dressed as his alter-ego Claire he commented: ‘I think the art world had more trouble coming to terms with me being a potter than my choice of frocks…’ In this interview he talks about his love of pots as a medium, the significance of his caustic imagery, and his thoughts on the prize in general.

The Turner Prize: A Retrospective, Tate Britain, 2 October 2007 - 6 January 2008

Issue 8: Meet the Artist: Doris Salcedo on why she split the turbine hall floor

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 12:00:00 BST

In this exclusive interview for TateShots, Colombian artist Doris Salcedo talks about cracking open Tate Modern. Her new work Shibboleth is a long snaking fissure that runs the vast length of the Turbine Hall, as if striking to the very foundations of the museum. Something similar might be said of the concept that underpins the piece. The word ‘shibboleth’ refers back to an incident in the Bible, which describes how the Ephraimites, attempting to flee across the river Jordan, were stopped by their enemies, the Gileadites. As their dialect did not include a ‘sh’ sound, those who could not say the word ‘shibboleth’ were captured and executed. A shibboleth is therefore a token of power: the power to judge, reject and kill. What might it mean to refer to such violence in a museum of modern art? For Salcedo, the crack represents a history of racism, running parallel to the history of modernity; a stand off between rich and poor, northern and southern hemispheres. She invites us to look down into it, and to confront discomforting truths about our world.

The Unilever Series: Doris Salcedo, Tate Modern, 9 October 2007 – 6 April 2008

Issue 7: In the Frame: A cloud-spotter's guide to art

Mon, 3 Sep 2007 12:00:00 BST

Gavin Pretor-Pinney is founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society and author of The Cloudspotter’s Guide. Applying his spotter’s eye to the Tate Collection he extols the joys of clouds in art, from Constable and his strata cumulus to Turner the storm-chaser.

Issue 7: Meet the Artist: Peter Blake talks to Tracey Emin

Mon, 3 Sep 2007 12:00:00 BST

Tracey Emin interviews Peter Blake and finds out how you get offered a knighthood, why Blake turned down dinner with Andy Warhol, and what he really thinks about that Sgt. Pepper cover. Watch the full-length interview here.

Issue 7: Work in Focus: Alex James on White Curve 1974

Mon, 3 Sep 2007 12:00:00 BST

Alex James, Blur’s bassist, on the relationship between Ellsworth Kelly, a good Pop song and Albert Einstein. James's book, Bit of a Blur, about his life with the band, is out now.

Issue 7: In the Studio: Antony Gormley’s cutting-edge workspace

Mon, 3 Sep 2007 12:00:00 BST

Antony Gormley takes us on a tour of his studio. Designed in collaboration with the architect David Chipperfield, this converted warehouse just north of King Cross manages to accommodate hanger-like rooms, where teams of assistants work on large-scale sculptures, with more intimate, personal spaces.

Issue 6: Current Exhibition: Peter Blake takes us on a tour of his new exhibition

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:00:00 BST

Peter Blake takes us around his retrospective at Tate Liverpool. Blake is often described as the godfather of British Pop art, and at the core of his work is an ever-present fascination with the world of popular culture and entertainment. Yet Blake’s work goes far beyond this. Here he discusses the evolution of his style, from the early days at the Royal College of Art, to the paintings that he’s working on right now.

Peter Blake: a retrospective, Tate Liverpool, until 23 September 2007

Issue 6: Performance: Painting and samba - the art of Oiticica

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:00:00 BST

This performance recreates the groundbreaking work of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica. Frustrated by the limitations of painting, Oiticica devoted himself to finding ways in which painting could be taken off the gallery walls and out into 3-dimensional space. One result was his ‘Parangolés’ of the mid-1960s. Literally habitable paintings, they were designed to be worn while dancing to the rhythm of samba. They came out of his involvement with the people of Mangueira Hill, a Rio de Janeiro shanty town, and Mangueira's famous samba school. The artist’s nephew, César Oiticica Fihlo, takes up the story.

Hélio Oiticica: The Body of Colour, Tate Modern, until 23 September 2007

Issue 6: Tate Tracks: Roll Deep on Anish Kapoor

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:00:00 BST

Tate invited East London grime collective Roll Deep to write a track about one of the artworks on show at Tate Modern. They chose Anish Kapoor’s sculpture Ishi’s Light. Two of the group talked to TateShots about their creative process. Roll Deep’s track Searching is part of the 12-month Tate Tracks project launched to match inspirational visual art with inspirational new music. We’re now holding a competition to find one final addition to the project – Your Tate Track. For details visit www.tatetracks.org.uk.

Issue 6: Work in Focus: Michael Bracewell on 'The Only Blonde in the World'

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:00:00 BST

Pauline Boty is little known outside the art world but in the early sixties she was one of the hottest talents on the London Pop art scene, a contemporary of David Hockney and Peter Blake. She died from cancer in 1966 at the age of just 28, and her work was stored away in a barn and largely forgotten. In the last decade her paintings have begun to be shown again, and in 1999 Tate bought The Only Blonde in the World, her portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Michael Bracewell discusses the life and work of Britain’s first female Pop artist.

Issue 6: Current Exhibition: Architect Nigel Coates lets his imagination run wild

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:00:00 BST

Bourbon biscuits, Liquorice Allsorts and golf balls are some of the unlikely materials from which architect Nigel Coates conjures a vision of London’s future. Coates was invited to make a piece of work for Global Cities, Tate Modern’s exhibition about the changing face of ten international cities. The architectural model he created focuses on the Thames Gateway, an area of land targeted for regeneration that stretches eastwards from CanaryWharf along the river Thames. He talks about why British architecture is in need of an injection of artistic spirit.

Global Cities, Tate Modern, until 27 August 2007

Issue 6: Performance: Boxing meets art at Tate Modern

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:00:00 BST

‘The Fight’, a boxing, music and dance performance, was conceived by Panamanian-born artist, Humberto Vélez. More than 100 amateur boxers from South London boxing clubs took over Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall for a series of bouts in the ring, with music by MC Mic Assassin and choreography by street dance company Flawless.

Issue 5: Venice Special: Venice Biennale: Sophie Calle on turning her life into art

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:00:00 BST

When a boyfriend broke-up with her by email, French artist Sophie Calle asked 107 women to read the letter and to analyse it according to their professional interest. It was set to music, re-ordered by a crossword-setter, performed by an actress, and probed by a forensic psychiatrist, amongst others. The resulting artwork called Take care of yourself (after the boyfriend's parting words) fills the French Pavilion at the Biennale. Another example of Calle's ability to create art from the intimate and painful details of her life is also being shown in Venice. It takes the form of a film recording the dying moments of her mother, while in an adjacent space a statement on the wall explains that on the day that Calle was invited to represent France at the Biennale, she learned that her mother was terminally ill. Calle spoke to TateShots about her work.

Issue 5: Venice Special: Venice Biennale: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer on art and technology

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:00:00 BST

Surveillance technology, robotics and computers all feature in the work of Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. As you enter the exhibition space, overhead cameras track your movements, triggering a reaction – in one room rows of white chairs rise and fall in waves as you pass by, in another, projected images emerge from the floor in response to where you stand. Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive approach is summed up most spectacularly in an installation called Pulse Room, one hundred incandescent light bulbs controlled by the heartbeat of the public. He takes us on a tour of his show at the Mexican Pavilion.

Issue 5: Venice Special: Venice Biennale : A bluffer's guide to the Venice Biennale

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:00:00 BST

The 52^nd Venice Biennale opened earlier this month, and runs until November 2007. So can you tell your Arsenale from your Giardini? We rounded up some Biennale veterans and asked them to sum it up.

Issue 5: Venice Special: Venice Biennale: Tracey takes on Venice at the British Pavilion

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:00:00 BST

Representing Britain at the Venice Biennale is a rare accolade. Tracey Emin is only the second British female artist to have a solo exhibition in the British Pavilion, the first was Rachel Whiteread in 1997. So has she pulled it off? We canvassed opinion as the doors opened on her new show and Emin made her grand entrance.

Tracey Emin Borrowed Light, British pavilion, until 21 November 2007

Issue 5: Venice Special: Venice Biennale: Ocean Without a Shore, a new work by Bill Viola

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:00:00 BST

Bill Viola’s latest video installation, Ocean Without a Shore, is presented in the atmospheric setting of the church of San Gallo, Venice. Monitors positioned on three stone altars in the church show a succession of individuals slowly approaching out of darkness and moving into the light, as if encountered at the intersection between death and life. Viola talks about his artistic intentions and the technical challenges of the piece.

Bill Viola Ocean Without a Shore, Chiesa di San Gallo, San Marco, Venezia, until 24 November 2007

Issue 5: Venice Special: Venice Biennale: A Poem about an Inland Sea, The Ukrainian Pavilion

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:00:00 BST

This year the Ukrainian Pavilion is Venice takes the unusual step of showing work by artists from other countries. German photographer Juergen Teller, and British artists Sam Taylor-Wood and Mark Titchner were amongst those invited to produce work in response to the question ‘Who are the Ukrainian people?’.

Issue 4: Performance: Did you ever want to be someone else?

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:00:00 BST

Artist Mathieu Briand and choreographer Prue Lang persuade the public to don masks and lose their inhibitions as they take part in a ‘flash-mob’ style performance for Tate Modern’s Long Weekend.

UBS Openings: The Long Weekend 2007

Issue 4: Film: Derek Jarman's rarely seen Super-8s

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:00:00 BST

The experimental Super-8 films that Derek Jarman began making in the 1970s are rarely shown. James Mackay, who later produced some of Jarman’s feature films including The Garden (1990) and Blue (1993), agreed to open up his archive of these ground-breaking short films for TateShots.

Issue 4: Meet the Artist: Views of the city with Richard Wentworth

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:00:00 BST

British artist Richard Wentworth climbs a skyscraper to pay tribute to London’s skyline, and explains why he finds inspiration in city life. Wentworth’s art has taken the diverse forms of photography, sculpture, installation, walks and talks. For Tate Modern’s exhibition Global Cities he has made a series of films that show people painting road markings, a kind of urban street art that normally goes unnoticed.

Global Cities, Tate Modern, 20 June - 27 August 2007

Issue 4: Current Exhibition: A show inspired by The Beach Boys

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:00:00 BST

Surf's up at Tate St Ives where the new exhibition is inspired by the life and music of The Beach Boy's Brian Wilson. It includes art from the 1960s to today that seems to parallel or reflect Wilson’s musical development. DJ and major Beach Boys fan Sean Rowley takes us on a tour.

If Everybody Had an Ocean: Brian Wilson: an Art Exhibition, Tate St Ives, until 23 September

Issue 4: Current Exhibition: Dalí and Disney's surreal collaboration

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:00:00 BST

Salvador Dalí declared Walt Disney to be a ‘great American Surrealist’inspired perhaps by the fantastical imagery in animations such as Fantasia. The admiration was mutual, and Disney invited Dalí to collaborate on a short film, which became Destino. Producer Baker Bloodworth takes up the story. Destino is currently showing at Tate Modern in the exhibition Dalí & Film.

Dalí & Film, Tate Modern, until 9 September

Issue 4: Current Exhibition: How We Are

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:00:00 BST

People have been using photography to capture images of life in Britain since the invention of the medium. This exhibition takes a snapshot of the country over the past 150 years, and includes both forgotten curios and established masterpieces.

How We Are: Photographing Britain, Tate Britain, until 2 September

Issue 3: Current Exhibition: Contemporary Art from China

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:00:00 BST

Tate Liverpool’s latest exhibition aims to convey the sheer diversity, confidence and ambition of art being made in China today. These predominantly young artists have chosen to remain in China, unlike many of the generation before them, and the majority of the work on show is seen for the first time outside the country.

The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China, Tate Liverpool, until 10 June

Issue 3: Performance: Fireworks by Yangjiang Group

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:00:00 BST

To mark the opening of Tate Liverpool’s exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, the Yangjiang Group staged a ‘fireworks battle’ in the docks. The work is called If I Knew the Danger Ahead I'd Have Stayed Well Clear and involved £50,000 of fireworks being launched from two opposing barges, filling the sky like exotic tracer fire.

Issue 3: Meet the Artist: Francis Alÿs on artists as clowns

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:00:00 BST

Belgian artist Francis Alÿs talks about his work The Last Clown (1995-2000), an installation that comprises animation, drawings and paintings all depicting the same incident: a man tripping over a dog in a park. Alÿs explains how this absurd, real life event can be read as a metaphor for the predicament of the artist. The Last Clown is currently on show at Tate Modern.

Issue 3: In the Studio: Martin Parr on photographing Britain

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:00:00 BST

Since the 1970s, Martin Parr has photographed aspects of British life, documenting and dissecting the way we live with a witty, unblinking eye. On the eve of Tate Britain’s exhibition ‘How We Are: Photographing Britain’ Parr met us at his London studio to talk about his work.

How We Are: Photographing Britain, Tate Britain, 22 May – 2 September 2007

Issue 3: Performance: The art of everyday behaviour

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:00:00 BST

What happens when a group of performance artists go undercover at Tate Modern? Ordinary activities like standing in a queue, travelling on an escalator or listening to a gallery tour -guide takes on strange new dimensions. Artists Dora García, Jiří Kovanda, Roman Ondák, Mario Garcia Torres, Nina Jan Beier and Marie Jan Lund explore the way visitors behave in a museum, subtly intervening to disrupt the usual codes of conduct.

Actions and Interruptions, UBS Openings: Saturday Live, Tate Modern, March 2007

Issue 3: Work in Focus: Toby Litt chooses a work by Francis Bacon

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:00:00 BST

Toby Litt offers a personal view of Francis Bacon’s painting Figure in Movement 1985. Litt is a London-based writer, whose books include Corpsing, deadkidsongs , Exhibitionism, Finding Myself, and most recently Hospital, described by one critic as ‘an extraordinarily vivid comic nightmare, an apocalyptic vision for our own weird times’.

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Issue 2: Performance: Matt Mullican performs while under hypnosis

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:00:00 BST

Warning: Contains Strong Language

American artist Matt Mullican gives a performance while in a state of hypnosis. His work explores the way in which hypnosis alters behaviour and seems to expose what lies behind the façade of identity. The symbols and shapes that he paints during the performance are a visual counterpoint to this inner journey, and point to the strong relationship between the unconscious mind and creativity.

UBS Openings: Saturday Live Matt Mullican under Hypnosis

Issue 2: Work in Focus: Dan Graham on the paintings of John Martin

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:00:00 BST

Artist Dan Graham declares his passion for the work of nineteenth-century painter John Martin. He explains why Martin could be considered a science-fiction painter, and why his apocalyptic visions have particular resonance for American society today. John Martin's paintings are currently on display at Tate Britain.

Dan Graham: Artist's Talk, 15 February 2007, Tate Modern

Issue 2: Performance: A 'solid-light' film by Anthony McCall

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:00:00 BST

This film captures a recent presentation of Anthony McCall's ground-breaking 1973 work, Line Describing a Cone. Testing the boundaries between cinema and sculpture, the work takes the form of a projected white dot that slowly grows to fill the dark space with a cone of light, immersing audience members in its field, to mesmerising effect.

Issue 2: Current Exhibition: Amrita Sher-Gil, one of India's most significant artists

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:00:00 BST

A new exhibition at Tate Modern looks at the paintings of Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941), who's been called India's Frida Kahlo. Sher-Gil was just 28 when she died but was already recognised as one of India's most important artists. In this film Sher-Gil's nephew Vivan Sundaram, an artist in his own right, talks about her legacy.

Amrita Sher-Gil, until 22 April 2007, Tate Modern

Issue 2: Meet the Artist: Thomas Hirschhorn on what it means to be an artist

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:00:00 BST

Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn discusses what it means to be an artist, and why art is a tool to confront the times in which we're living. Hirschhorn is represented in Tate's Collection by Drift Topography 2003, a sculpture in which cardboard cutouts of US soldiers surround a ramshackle city whose streets are lined with petrol cans, raising the spectre of the Iraq war. We filmed Hirschhorn at the Stephen Friedman gallery, London, where his latest installation extends the theme.

Issue 2: Current Exhibition: Cartoonist Martin Rowson on Hogarth's London

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:00:00 BST

'Hogarth was filthy and he was fun' says Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson. In the final weeks of Tate Britain's popular Hogarth exhibition, Rowson takes to the streets of London in pursuit of the artist's satiric genius.

Hogarth, until 29 April 2007, Tate Britain

Issue 1: New Work: Mark Wallinger explores the art of protest

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Mark Wallinger talks about his dramatic re-creation of peace campaigner Brian Haw's Parliament Square protest, State Britain, currently on display at Tate Britain, and outlines his own political stance on the Iraq war. State Britain consists of a meticulous reconstruction of over 600 weather-beaten banners, photographs, peace flags and messages from well-wishers that have been amassed by Haw over the past five years. Haw began his protest against the economic sanction in Iraq in June 2001, and has remained opposite the Palace of Westminster ever since. On 23 May 2006, following the passing by Parliament of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act prohibiting unauthorised demonstrations within a one kilometre radius of Parliament Square, the majority of Haw's protest was removed. Taken literally, the edge of this exclusion zone bisects Tate Britain. Wallinger has marked a line on the floor of the galleries positioning State Britain half inside and half outside the border.
Mark Wallinger: State Britain, until 27 August 2007, Tate Britain

Issue 1: In the Studio: Gilbert & George discuss their new 'Bomb Pictures'

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Gilbert & George invite us into their studio to discuss a new group of pictures, Six Bomb Pictures 2006, made specially for their current retrospective at Tate Modern. As well as providing a fascinating insight into their working methods, they reveal why they want to de-shock rather than to shock people.
Gilbert & George: Major Exhibition, until 7 May 2007, Tate Modern

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Issue 1: Performance: Highlights of Martin Creed's gig at Tate Modern

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Warning: Contains strong language

Turner Prize winner, Martin Creed takes to the stage with his inimitable band for a sell-out performance as part of UBS Openings: Saturday Live. This video shows highlights of the gig along with an interview with Creed. Words and music have always been an important part of Creed's art. For this performance at Tate Modern in November 2006, he combined talking, choreography and music played with his band. Creed has said, 'It is a talk about trying to talk'.

Issue 1: Current Exhibition: Paul Farley on Tate Liverpool's 'Centre of the Creative Universe'

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Poet Paul Farley explores Tate Liverpool's latest exhibition, Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde. Farley grew up in Liverpool and has strong memories of many of the places that feature in the artists' work, from the dockside and housing estates to the clubs he used to hang out in. The exhibition looks at how the city has influenced and inspired a diverse range of important post-war artists, and equally, how artists have contributed to the way Liverpool is pictured in the popular imagination. It includes work by Keith Arnatt, Bernd & Hilla Becher, the Boyle Family, Jeremy Deller, Rineke Dijkstra, Adrian Henri, Candida Höfer, John Latham, Yoko Ono, Martin Parr, Bob and Roberta Smith, Sam Walsh and Tom Wood.
Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde, until 9 September 2007, Tate Liverpool

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Issue 1: Story of a Masterpiece: Story of a Masterpiece: The Kiss

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT

This video charts the fascinating history of a work once so unloved that it lay hidden in a stable block only to re-emerge many years later as one of the most popular icons in the Tate Collection. Rodin's marble sculpture The Kiss (1900-1904), currently on show at Tate Modern, is one of three versions that exists. It was commissioned by American collector Edward Perry Warren, who lived in Lewes House, Sussex. But while the French public celebrated Rodin and his work, when The Kiss first went on show in Britain in 1914 it met with outrage.

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Issue 1: Vox Pops: Views from Tate visitors

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT

We took a camera to Tate Modern and asked people to tell us what they thought of the art they'd seen that day. One of them turned out to be musician Billy Bragg, still reeling from a ride down Carsten Höller's Slides, though he seemed to be enjoying himself. We were pleased to discover that Tate Modern's visitors, including Billy, aren't short of an opinion or two.