The Weather Project, the Tate Modern

dod

The trip to Covent Garden was not until Saturday evening. Having that morning taken in the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, there wasn’t enough time left to do justice to the British Museum, so we hopped on the tube to St.Paul’s to go take in a crossing of the pedestrian Millennium Bridge en route to the Tate Modern gallery.

Set among many trendy warehouse apartments and exclusive riverside developments, the Tate Modern is a fabulously inventive use for an old, decommissioned power plant. Rather than demolish and sell out to developers, it has been gutted internally and now houses the Tate’s modern art collection and modernist exhibitions. I had read of ‘The Weather Project’ on various websites and the pictures of the exhibition were decidedly underwhelming- but then again I had never pretended to ‘get’ modern art.

The core of the Tate Modern is called ‘The Space’- the name is quite apt as it has the dimensions of a large windowless aircraft hangar. The Space is probably the size of two football pitches laid end to end, with an elevated viewing platform at about half way. The ceiling rises the full height of the building (about six stories) and, with the exception of the viewing platform, the vertical and horizontal space is uninterrupted.

‘The Weather Project’ is an exhibition by Olafur Eliasson. The walls of the gallery are bare and the ceiling is tiled with mirrors. At one end of the hall is a massive semicircular translucent disc, illuminated from behind with the same sort of neon lighting as is found in streetlights. The straight edge of the semicircle reflects in the ceiling mirror, giving the impression of a huge sun-like disc. At the side of the hall, water is occasionally pumped in small sprays into the atmosphere. These form small cloud-like formations in the gallery.

I walked into The Space expecting little. It is impossible to convey quite how moving an impact this apparently simple concept made. The viewing platform was full of people apparently hypnotised by this sun-disc illuminating the dark hall. People stood and looked and did not move. Superficially, there was little to take in, but there was obviously something else, something below the surface of the work, that individually and collectively we found compelling.

I walked from the viewing platform down to the bare concrete floor. Groups of people lay on the ground- some looked toward the sun, some used the ceiling mirror to look at themselves or the others in their group. Mothers sat on their coats whilst toddlers and young children ran around. One group of young adults sat in a circle strumming their guitars, singing and swaying together. There was an overwhelming sense of peace and serenity. In all there were hundreds of people, some wandering around apparently aimlessly, just drinking in the atmosphere. Some sat or lay motionless on the ground. Some sang. Couples held hands and gave in to an instinctive, overwhelming need to say nothing.

I walked through the floor, meandering through these groups that were at once strangely disassociated and peculiarly unified. I walked to the back of the hall to take it all in and the effect was just as awe-inspiring. I slowly walked back toward the great disc. To the left, the bustle of the more traditional galleries and the inevitable gallery shop continued. But here, separated only by some glass panes, there was no bustle, only calm. I still cannot tell what it was that made it special, but certainly it was very special.

Was it the scale of the work? The unstructured participation of the visitors? Was it that there was no clutter to distract from the focus of the work? I do not know what it was, but I do know that it moved me in a way that my description cannot do justice to. So mesmerising was the impact that having spent longer there than I had intended, I still had to leave sooner than I wanted.

Go see if you have the opportunity.

spectacleinrock

I was sceptical before i saw it. But i felt so at peace, it was amazing.

p

Yea, tis great. If you're going to london check it out:

Some pictures from sxc.hu, which give you a bit of an idea.

Also, the official site:

davej

I saw it before Christmas and was equally impressed with it.

Here are 2 shots i took:





davej

alb

Was there myself a few weeks ago here's apic I took.

link

MadDogGreener

I didnt know what to expect going to see this but it was pretty amazing.

According to the tate website it finished on the 21st March. I cant find any news on what going to replace it.

Some of the other exhibits were quite bizarre to say the least. The one with the blownup shed made no sense at all until I read the description afterwards