Tate Modern project: Community project: Skirt of the Black Mouth Summer 2012

Running from September 2012 – 3 May 2015, the aim of Skirt of the Black Mouth, created by artists Heather and Ivan Morison, was to construct a place for everyone within the south landscape of the Tate Modern Project.

Skirt of the Black Mouth began as a new approach to the traditional hoarding, using it as a sculptural element to redefine the space, while allowing glimpses of what lies behind. Characterised by a distinctively twisted arrangement of the wall, bench and path, the space was stolen back from the construction site, dividing one world from another. Composed of light and dark, silences and shadows, contrasting materials and conflicting ideas, it will encourage visitors to begin to imagine what this space is, and what it might be in the future.

The summer programmes involved a series of different creative responses to the space in the form of performances, pop-ups and installations which encouraged interaction, conversation and areas of reflection.

Watch art practice Something & Son speak about the unique bar they created for our 2013 programme. The bar had a specially created façade inspired by the stonework found in Baroque styles and Victorian architecture. Made using a combination of plaster casts and specially created 3D printed elements.

Watch Exyzt responce to Heather and Ivan Morison’s artwork Skirt of the Black Mouth with a temporary installation that draws people together in a unique way – a feasting table and a wood fired public oven.

• Summer Programme 2014 
• Summer Programme 2013

The artists often make works for public spaces that disrupt the rigid grid of the modern world. They use simple folds and cuts to transform monolithic forms, materials and ideas, producing a more unexpected, more beautiful geometry. The resulting structures are intended to agitate and provoke the viewer, but the artists also want people to find hope through this confrontation.