Susan Hiller at the Tate Britain

A few days ago I went to the Tate Britain to see an artist who I had heard of but knew very little about, Susan Hiller. I went not knowing what to expect, only knowing her for her series called 'Rough Seas' all about her collection of British postcards from around the coast of, yes you guessed it, rough seas!
I was absolutely blown away by this exhibition and loved how provocative and thought provoking each installation was.

Susan Hiller has lived and worked in Britain for over 30 years and is one of the most influential artists of her generation. The exhibition provided a focus on a selection of her key works, from assembled postcard images made in the 1970s to her pioneering mixed-media installations and video projections. The exhibition really highlighted Hiller's interest in the subconscious or unconscious mind, whether in the form of dreams and memories or as supernatural or visionary experiences.

My favourite piece was definitely 'Monument 1980-1' which displayed forty-one photographs of memorial plaques from George Frederic Watts‘s Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice in Postman’s Park, London. Each plaque commemorates someone who died while performing an act of heroism and really got you contemplating the lives and heroics of these people depicted by their memorials.



The soundtrack, that accompanied the photographs were placed upon a park bench set in front of the series of plaques, is Hiller’s own voice, addressing heroism, death, memory and representation. Sitting on the bench to listen makes you an integral part of the installation. She talked about how a portrait will live on much longer than your body and that these plaques kept alive the people they were remembering, some decades longer than they actually were alive for. It was a really touching, thoughtful piece.

Another brilliant installation was From the Freud Museum 1191-6 where Hiller uses traditional archaeological collection boxes to display an object that she has collected with a text of her own choice to go with the object. Hiller comments on this work saying 'I deal with fragments of everyday life, and I'm suggesting that a fragmentary view is all we've got.' It was fascinating to see what objects she put with what text and why, and how this comparison created a new meaning, life and use for the object.



Witness, 2000 is an installation first seen through the frame of its entrance: an open 'forest' of silvery wires and dangling objects, which I thought to be orbs at first glance, filling the top half of a beautifully lit room. As you enter the room a dim, only faintly perceptible hum of talk emanates from the space and as you enter the room further you see that this hum of talk is coming from flat round speakers, each hanging at the end of the wire.
When you listen to an individual earphone, taking it in from the whispering ambient sound, you hear a single speaker telling a story. Each earpiece is of a different speaker from different countries and so the room is full of a great range of languages all telling a story of UFO sightings they have encountered.



The experience was beautiful. Just standing in a beautifully glistening room surrounded by just out of sound whispers each retelling a story of something they have experienced. I absolutely loved it.


So I am urging EVERYONE to go see this exhibition at the Tate Britain, you have till the 15th May, so hop to it! It's definitely worth it. But to get your taste buds tingling for it, here are a few more images of some of the other works from the exhibition that I loved and that you can go and experience for yourself!




Auras: Homage to Marcel Duchamp, 2008


Levitations: Homage to Yves Klein, 2008


The Tao of Water: Homage to Joseph Beuys, 1969-2010




10 Months, 1977-9




Self Portraits, 1982-7




Work in Progress, 1980

Tate Modern to the Tate Britain

A week or so again I took a trip up to London to the Tate Modern and then took a ride along the Thames to the Tate Britain.

First I shall talk about the Tate Modern exhibition "Exposed. Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera" which was all about looking at pictures made on the sly, without the permission of the "model". The pictures presented a shocking and witty perspective on iconic and taboo subjects to do with peoples rights within photography. Nowadays, in a world where you need to get permission from thousands of different avenues to be a photographer and photograph people it was a really fascinating concept.

There was one picture, shown below, by Harry Callahan that I loved,
However, generally I found the photography itself poor. Whilst I loved the concept of the exhibition and the whole idea of the "unseen photographer" after the first few rooms I became bored and felt some of the work just wasn't very good. It was intriguing to see the world like a "Peeping Tom", I felt rather invasive looking at all these photographs that had been taken without the subjects knowledge or permission. In a world where the public is obsessed with celebrities every move, causing them to be followed with a camera permanently stuck in their faces, whist the rest of us are watched 24/7 by surveillance cameras it was only time until someone made this form of photography into art and who better than the Tate Modern to display it. Photographs of celebrities fleeing the paparazzi, unknown civilians captured by hidden cameras and even private intimate moments caught on camera by spying neighbours, it really dealt with the idea of how watched we really are.

Thus, whilst I thought the majority of the images were poor, bar the first two rooms, it is definitely an exhibition worth seeing, if not for the images for the fantastic concept behind them.

Exhibition on until 3rd October '10

Next we have the Tate Britain which was holding an exhibition I was desperate to see on Henry Moore.

Moore was one of Britain's greatest artists and his sculptures have always been some of my favourite art with ideas from primitive art and surrealism always seen as key sources of inspiration for his work. The way he depicts the female form to show his new ideas of sexuality is something key in many of the sculptures. However, what I did not realise until this exhibition was his work on the war, with grim drawings of people sheltering underground and sculptures of fallen soldiers and war helmets. I did not realise quite how talented he was at drawing as well as his beautiful sculptures.

The exhibition was beautiful, showing how Moore's career began and developed. The range of materials and different scales he worked with was mind boggling. My favourite works by him was definitely the small bronze statue of figures on rocking chairs, with a wonderful texture and detail compared with the giant wooden sculptures, smooth and beautifully carved. Take an hour out of your day to go see Henry Moore's work. It is definitely worth it!

Exhibition ends 8th August '10