With some of the concrete balls weighing more than 600 kilograms the work might also signal the impossibility of moving forward alone. As such, the work can be read as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of life. The ropes connecting the spheres suggest networks within society. The spheres are arranged in small groupings that mimic the way people gather in a crowd. In a dialogue improvised by the artist, the characters reflect on life’s difficulties, asking ‘Wetin you go do?’, a colloquial term in Nigerian Pidgin meaning ‘What are you going to do?’ These soundtracks are part narrative and part song, and shift between stream of consciousness and profound statements in English, French and Nigerian Pidgin, an English-based Creole language widely spoken across Nigeria. Sound can be heard from three of the balls, carefully edited and layered, with each sphere representing a different imaginary character. The installation consists of concrete spheres connected to each other with heavy ropes. ‘ In Wetin You Go Do?‘ by Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga integrates voice and sculpture to ‘reflect on contemporary anxieties.’ Who Died of Injuries Received In Trying to Save A Child/From a Runaway Horse, June 20 1888 One memorial reads, for example:Įlizabeth Boxall. This installation by Susan Hiller called ‘ Monument‘ incorporates forty-one photographs of memorial plaques from Postman’s Park, near St Paul’s Cathedral, London,Įach plaque commemorates an ordinary man, woman or child who died while performing an act of heroism.

Two of the Tanks are used to show live performance art and installations while the third provides utility space. Tate describes them as “the world’s first museum galleries permanently dedicated to live art.”Īn austere sweeping concrete staircase complements the roughly finished tank walls. The three large, circular, underground oil tanks originally used by the power station have been converted into accessible display spaces and facilities areas. The Turbine Hall resonated to Bruce Nauman’s ‘Raw Materials’ audio installation. The extension offers 22,492 square metres of additional gross internal area for display and exhibition spaces, performance spaces, education facilities, offices, catering and retail facilities as well as a car parking and a new external public space.

It’s been a while since I’d been along to the Tate Modern, and a lot has changed since my last visit, with the new Switch House extension being built and the conversion of three circular underground tanks into new galleries.īuilt above the oil tanks is the new Switch House extension, a ten-storey, 65-metre high tower, which opened to the public on 17 June 2016.

Tate modern the tanks 2016