The Tate modern state

Posted on February 22, 2013 Updated on February 27, 2014

Visiting the Tate gallery has influenced the way I see ‘Art’ and the shooting of the documentary more than I expected. My opinion of the gallery isn’t the most positive but nonetheless influential to my filming approach. A particular piece which was memorable was channel one, Channel two and channel three by Mike Kelley.

The structure initially appears minimalist, three wooden beams laid out in a symmetrical pattern however if you look closer in there is an array of colours inside. But thats it. Still seems pretty minimalistic to me. I guess maybe I’m not the target audience for this particular piece but I just felt like Mike Kelley tried to hard to make what is considered as ‘Modern art.’ What exactly does this piece reflect exactly in terms of society? life in general? Or well anything!? Its what you make of it but how deep should you have to look before it crosses the line of weird and no longer art? Is there even a crossover point? So many questions. It definitely provoked a reaction in me so yes it did something. Some people may therefore call it art but I just can’t.

It was only outside the museum I spotted something I personally consider to be real art. Emphasis on the word real. No frames,profit or  art critics here just real people putting there feeling across in a concrete way. No pun intended.

The day really made me think. Can real art be constructed? If we produce art purely for others and not for ourselves what are we really reflecting? When it came to filming our documentary ‘Struggle with Life and Race against Time’ this impacted the way it was filmed. Setting up the feature interview we decided to focus on naturalism rather than a cliched cinematic approach. We wanted to make it personal, not necessarily perfect or what you might expect on screen but reflective of the real him as his family see him not just as the audience may want to.

The setting wasn’t put together to be eye catching or especially appealing but to make him feel comfortable in an environment he actually recognised.  At the end of the day the film was about him not art and because of the visit to the Tate thats what mattered most to this production.