Exhibition

Tate Britain Commission: Mike Nelson

19 Mar 2019 – 6 Oct 2019

Regular hours

Tuesday
10:00 – 18:00
Wednesday
10:00 – 18:00
Thursday
10:00 – 18:00
Friday
10:00 – 18:00
Saturday
10:00 – 18:00
Sunday
10:00 – 18:00
Monday
10:00 – 18:00

Save Event: Tate Britain Commission: Mike Nelson98

I've seen this22

People who have saved this event:

close

Tate Britain

London, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • 88,77A,C10
  • Pimlico
  • Vauxhall
Directions via Google Maps Directions via Citymapper
Event map

A major new installation by Mike Nelson transforms the heart of Tate Britain

About

Mike Nelson has transformed the grand spaces of the Duveen Galleries into something between a sculpture court and an asset strippers’ warehouse. He has carefully selected objects from the post-war Britain that framed his childhood – including enormous knitting machines, woodwork stripped from a former army barracks, graffitied steel awnings and doors from an NHS hospital.

Nelson’s project has been informed by the Duveen Galleries’ origins as the first purpose-built sculpture galleries in England, intended to rival the sculpture court at the British Museum and the V&A’s Cast Courts. It turns the neo-classical galleries into a warehouse of monuments to a lost era and the vision of society it represented.

Nelson is interested in the cultural and social contexts behind the objects he has selected, as well as their material qualities. He explains

Their manipulation and arrangement subtly shift them from what they once were into sculpture, and then back again to what they are – examples of the machines and equipment left over from industry and infrastructure. The exhibition weaves this allusion with that of British history. It presents us with a vision of artefacts cannibalised from the last days of the industrial era in place of the treasures of empire that would normally adorn such halls.

The annual Tate Britain Commission invites artists to create a new artwork in response to the grand space of the Duveen Galleries. Artists who have previously undertaken commissions in the Duveens at Tate Britain include Anthea HamiltonCerith Wyn Evans and Pablo Bronstein.

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Mike Nelson

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.