Tate Modern Extension and Red 138

At Switch Tate Modern things were looking up

In town yesterday for a briefing  (I thought - more about that another time) and decided to take a Members' only visit to the Tate Modern Extension.

The Tate cultural  juggernaut is there in all it's glory and keeping the  motoring allusion going -like the M25 there's evidence that rather than thinning the numbers of travellers on the art highway it's actually going to generate more foot miles from those  aspirational seekers.

Look up there - on the left

First thing is to say I was somewhat disturbed to find how well I fit the Tate Member demographic, Middle aged-ish, predominantly white and slightly grumpy (although the crowd was pretty much evenly split between male and female) .

There was even work that seemed to be close to stepping on the territory of the Design Museum with the Thingness by Jasper Morrison at the lower floor levels.

A part of Jasper Morrison's Thingness

Another point to make is that I was struck by how well the escalators work in the main body of Tate Modern - this was an exceptional busy day (The Tate Modern Clan loves an 'exclusive -even when it's very obviously not) - the stairs and lifts in the 10 stories of the  'Switch' were under severe strain with volume of people as well as buggies for young and the old not in abundance.

Plenty there for the 'Pseuds' amongst us - many which brought to mind the spectacles  recently misinterpreted.

Was this  the Air conditioning waiting to be installed ?

I always like things that do something and have lights..

Angela Bulloch's Aluminium 4 (2012)

I was personally pleased to see something of Marina Abramovic she's an important figure.

The work  Rhythm O on show is though  for me  a static work and is not really representational of her artistic essence (what is?).


On a positive note it was pleasing to see as well as many women artist represented there were nods to Performance Art  and an opportunity for involvement in some basic fashion.

A performance-y and conceptual  nod perhaps?  Capsules by Ricardo Basbaum

Part of 'Rhythm O' by Marina Abramovic - text says 'There are 72 objects on the table that one can use as desired'

A 'typical' Louise Bourgeois Spider

And another in the area of  dedicated space to Louise

There are some great views for the 10th floor viewing area, the Switch is open to the general public from tomorrow and 

Has it looked better?

no doubt I'll be back soon when it's less crowded and more finished . 

Red 138

Actually from a series of works called  Red and at Tate Modern (yesterday)  this from Ukrainian born Boris Mikhailov.

It's part of Boris's Red series  (and now part of mine - Heh heh.)