Tate Britain: Searching for the perfect object.

Tate Britain is home to many artworks that have been considered worthy of national celebration.

Bill Woodrow’s Elephant swallows the gallery. As if the large elephant holding an automatic weapon on the wall wasn’t enough, there is also a collection of ten car doors, to represent a watering hole. The work speaks of the struggles of third world countries and the weaponising of the animals. The work has been constructed in a folk art way, which appeals to me. Creating works using found artefacts or creating something new from something that would have been discarded can create a better object than making an artefact from the beginning.

 

 

Tony Cragg’s Stack from 1975 is another artwork that works with what has been discarded. Some of these objects were once cherished. Cragg’s work illustrates the waste of humans in an almost fossil like way, illustrating the waste as a geological find creates interest and shows the way that waste has become a part of the world. I think this piece is important to consider as it encompasses a large number of artefacts. It sucks you in and makes you look for objects, the deeper you look the more there is to find; and a piece that keeps revealing is something that could lure you in for many years.

 

These pieces speak volumes about human consumption and I think they deserve a place in the run for the perfect object.

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