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This is a past display. Go to current displays

Martin Creed, Work No. 232: the whole world the work = the whole world 2000. Tate. © Martin Creed .

Martin Creed

Contemplate Martin Creed’s conceptual installation Work No. 232: the whole world + the work = the whole world 

Originally made for the entrance of Tate Britain, this neon wall sculpture presents a text in the form of an equation. While the use of an equation suggests a definitive formula, Creed’s words remains ambiguous. It has been interpreted as both a positive statement about the inclusiveness of art, and a negative statement about art’s irrelevance.

I find it a lot easier if it negates itself at the same time as pushing itself forward – so there’s an equal positive and negative which adds up to nothing, but at the same time is something too.

Martin Creed

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Tate Modern
Natalie Bell Building Level 4

Getting Here

1 February 2022 – 6 October 2024

Free

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  • Artist

    Martin Creed

    born 1968
  • Conceptual art

    Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. It emerged as an art movement in the 1960s and the term usually refers to art made from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

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    Examining ‘visual language’ or ‘vocabulary’ within the works of ARTIST ROOMS

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