Rachel Whiteread @Tate Modern

Visited Tate Modern yesterday afternoon to have a look at the Rachel Whiteread installation.

Having made a cast of the 'space' within an unassuming packing box and duplicating this 'space' thousands of times, a monumental and dynamic landscape is created. Our journey through the 'landscape' is via paths (basically space), their very creation being brought into existence simply because the empty space around them has been made solid and impenetrable.

The texture of the surfaces of the cast space of the individual boxes varies as you walk through, presumably alluding to different landscape form.

There is another installation currently at Tate Modern (I think it was on the third floor and I can't remember the name of the artist) that's worth a look and which explores hidden form. It consists of two blocks of wood, the bottoms of which are still blocks, but the tops have been sanded back to reveal the form of the trees as they developed. For example, where there are knots in the block of wood at the bottom, as you go further up, the wood has been sanded back to reveal that these knots are in fact branches, that have been concealed as the trees girths increased. Stunning to look at!

Dickie