Every now and again I really look forward to seeing monumental new works by major artists. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's newest creation in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London is a scene of disaster... it seems mismatched, ill-conceived, too referential, derivative, a bargain basement of installation art... She has said in an interview that it's a memorial to previous Turbine exhibitors, set in the future (2058) when it rains everyday, the sculptures have mutated and the space has become the only sancturary for art and people, yet it's not a dark work (yep, the bright lighting doesn't support her dystopian view of London), and viewers will bring their own relationship to the work but the (too) many references to post-apocalyptic novels and movies skew the perspective...Unlike Louise Bourgeois' original Maman spider, her copied, or should one say referenced work seems to rely on scale to convey a message, but it doesn't seem to have any substance (the sculptures are apparently made of polystyrene)... she has seized upon the apparent zeitgeist of doom and catastrophe and tried to create a bleak cultural oasis of the future, but has merely mutated others work, then collated some obvious dystopian fiction which make any message seem as crude as a shopping list, and the books are all shiny new copies; some chewed-up or even water damaged books might have worked better... no doubt they'll have to be replaced regularly - FREE BOOKS at the Tate everyone... and the yellow bunk beds made me think of a quick trip west to Ikea... these objects apparently allude to Henry Moore's war shelter drawings.
TH 2058 at Tate Modern, London 2008 © TateAll in all, this work of works is all the more disappointing because I so wanted to to like it - I connected to the overall premise. Of course, I am relying on what I've read and seen in the press, and perhaps I will eventually warm to it, but I sense a rain check coming on... However, with the post-apocalyptic glow of an Eliasson sun highlighting a few Doris Salcedo cracks, with some Hirst-esque diamond superbugs crawling around a Whiteread style sugar cube mountain, maybe it would work as a chilling memento mori...A much more startling scene of cultural devastation was that of a stash of modern art smouldering in the aftermath of a London city warehouse fire in 2004; art imitates life even after reports of its death...Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster at the Tate Modern View a video clip of the Turbine Hall exhibit at Times OnlineView installation photos at BBC.co.uk