Essay Research | The Tate Modern

As research for our upcoming essay we had to visit a series of gallery spaces at the Tate Modern and Whitechapel Gallery. Our essay is to be a comparison of 2 of the spaces we visited that day, this can be from both galleries or from just one. As I greatly disliked and was completely uninspired by Whitechapel Gallery, it will not be included in my essay. Therefore my comparison will be between two Tate spaces. 

The first, 'Facing History' curated by Jessica Morgan, brings together two bodies of work that confront the violence and atrocities of contemporary war and civil society. I felt this related to my culture theme as the political, social and economical side of a Country shapes its culture, art and people. This room included two artists work; Leon Golub and Hrair Sarkissian. Golub's work 'Vietnam II' was a wall Muriel, stretched along brown paper. The painting was made from 1970's newspaper cuttings and photographs from the Vietnam War. Golub was heavily involved culturally with his work as he had protested the war in the 60's. His inspiration was Picasso's 'Guernia' and he described his work as "the visual metaphor of a newspaper, a super photograph or a comic strip.. assulted by tumult and violence."

The other artist, Hrair used photography. At first his take on war seems disconnected , but these images portray his upbringing, his own personal culture; the towns he lived in, people he knew and the way he was brought up. The images were of 'hanging' sites, taken at early hours of the morning when executions were going on.

My second chosen room was 'Homeworkers' which was also a collection of various artists works, I felt the collage theme tied in with the mixture of photography and fine art in the previous room. Many of the pieces in this room had political and sociala aspects, fighting for womens and workers rights. Also based in the 70's, the other works in the room followed similar subject matter. However this room's political views were about the subvert hierarchies of power in the relationships between male and female.

Overall, this trip, although not directly influencing my project, inspiration is always helpful, and it gave me new ways to look at bringing culture into my project.