Tacita Dean at Tate Modern

An installation by Tacita Dean at Tate Modern takes place this year as the contemporary artist undertakes the latest commission to fill the Turbine Hall.

Tacita Dean at Tate Modern
Renowned for her work with film and cameras, the British artist is set to be the next one to take over the enormous space at the Tate Modern and fill it with a specially designed work. Part of the Unilever Series which sees a different artist create a brand new commission every year, the work by Tacita Dean is unveiled on Tuesday 11th October 2011.

Mixed media
Dean uses many other media in her work, including artist's books, drawings, found objects, photography and sound installations. However, the installation by Tacita Dean at Tate Modern sees the artist return to perhaps her best known medium, film, in the first work in the Unilever Series to be devoted to the moving image.

FILM
Focusing on a portrait style of depiction rather telling a conventional narrative, Tacita Dean's films capture subtle changes or slow moving objects, relying on the natural world to provide her with unhurried events. Many of her films show the shifting effects of natural light, such as one of a solar eclipse on a Cornish farm or the transition from dawn to dusk on a lighthouse near Berwick-upon-Tweed. Titled simply FILM, the work by Tacita Dean at Tate Modern takes the form of a 13 metre tall monolith at the end of a darkened Turbine Hall, on which an eleven minute, silent 35mm looped film is shown.

Old skills
A tribute to the photochemical, non-digital medium of film, Tacita Dean's installation was made by turning a Cinemascope lens on its side and turning the usual landscape orientation of a screen to a vertical one in order to better fit the proportions of the Turbine Hall. The film was edited by hand by the artist and pays homage to the skills developed in the early days of cinema, such as masking, double exposure and glass matte painting.

Conservation campaign
The Turbine Hall installation combines monochrome, colour and hand tinted images, and serves as a timely reminder of the diversity and creative potential of film. As the monopoly of digital technologies grows and photochemical labs across the world close down, Dean's installation reminds us that film is under increasing threat and adds in impassioned voice to the debate for film conservation.

Architectural space
A challenge for any artist, the annual Unilever Series commission invites artists to make the most of filling the enormous space and this year will be no different. Having created several works that demonstrate the ways in which architecture can be transformed by being viewed through a lens, the art world will be holding their breath with anticipation to see just what the installation by Tacita Dean at Tate Modern looks like.

FILM, the Unilever Series commission by Tacita Dean at Tate Modern takes place from Tuesday 11th October 2011.

More Exhibitions

John Martin at Tate Britain

Damien Hirst Diamond Skull

Gerhard Richter Exhibition London

Lucian Freud Exhibition London

Pre-Raphaelites Exhibition London

Damien Hirst at Tate Modern

Picasso Exhibition London

Leonardo da Vinci at National Gallery

Da Vinci Exhibition London

Magic Worlds at Museum of Childhood

Heart of the Great Alone at Queens Gallery

Ship in Bottle at Trafalgar Square

Ship in Bottle on Fourth Plinth

Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square

Rocking Horse at Trafalgar Square

Quentin Blake at House of Illustration

Quentin Blake Drawings at House of Illustration

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