Art Review of the TATE BRITAIN

On Tuesday 18th November our Creative Meida class went on a visit to the Tate Britain. When we arrived we were greeted by an employee and then went to put our coats and jackets in the cloak room, remembering to bring our sketch books and pencils, so we could draw during the exhibition. Firstly we went to the Turner Prize 2008. This included 4 main artists: Cathy Wilkes, Runa Islam, Goshka Macuga and Mark Leckey.Cathy Wilkes creates sculptures using every day objects and materials, for example fronm the supermarket which evolves continuously with each new work. Her installations have been described as confessional, weaving together with ideas of birth, loss and transformation.The densely layered films of Runa Islam reward a close attention of their compositional detail. The film images reveal isolated elements of its constrictions. These are carefully reconstructed as an exploration into modes of representation. She also uses Cinematography and old projectors to show her work. Goshka Macuga's work examines the conventions of arciving exhibitions making a museum display. Her sculpture installations often plays host to unexpected displays of other artists. I really liked Cathy Wilkes because she combined art with photograph and used unusual objects to present her message. After about half an hour we went into a little room just before the exit were we voted for who we liked best and left some comments. Next we headed of to the Francis Bacon exhibition. We had to also sketch a few of his works to draw, so I chose Crucifixion 1965 oil on canvas because I liked the colours and the mix of culture and religion. His work was spread out over 10 rooms each showing a different theme and part of his life e.g. Animal, Zone, Apprehension, Crucifixion, Crisis, Archive, Portrait, Memorial, Epic and Late. The room I liked the most would have to be the memorial room because he based it on his friend George Dyer who committed suicide. I really enjoyed the day as we had a chance to see the different styles of art and observing what we saw and trying to explain it. These skills will come in good hand for this unit 'Identity for Portrait'