Tate Britain
26 February – 26 May 2003
Tate Britain takes a fresh look at new art in the UK with Days Like These, the second Tate triennial exhibition of contemporary British art which opens on 26 February. The exhibition occupies the Level 2 Exhibition Galleries, and also the central Duveen galleries, the sculpture court and public circulation spaces in and around the building. Entry to the exhibition is free.
Days Like These features the work of twenty-three artists, encompassing painting, sculpture, film, video, photography and sound works. It will provide an opportunity to see the work of emerging artists such as Gillian Carnegie, Mike Marshall and Shizuka Yokomizo along with new work by more established and celebrated artists including Richard Deacon, Richard Hamilton, Tim Head, Cornelia Parker, and Rachel Whiteread. The artists in Days Like These have not been selected to illustrate a theme, but rather for the pure vitality of their recent work. The exhibition will reveal the breadth of thoughtfulness, humour, subtlety and complexity in contemporary British art.
Participating artists are: Kutlug Ataman, Margaret Barron, David Batchelor, Nathan Coley, Gillian Carnegie, David Cunningham, Dexter Dalwood, Ian Davenport, Richard Deacon, Peter Doig, Ceal Floyer, Richard Hamilton, Tim Head, Jim Lambie, Sarah Morris, Paul Noble, Cornelia Parker, Nick Relph and Oliver Payne, Susan Philipsz, Mike Marshall, George Shaw, Rachel Whiteread, and Shizuka Yokomizo.
Rachel Whiteread presents two new large-scale works, recently acquired by Tate, while George Shaw shows meticulously detailed landscape paintings of suburban estates in the Midlands where he lives and works. David Batchelor has built an illuminated tower using industrial shelving and highly-coloured Perspex, to create a glowing column stretching the full height of the Duveen galleries. It sits in the heart of Jim Lambie’s Zobop floor, which covers an entire section of the Duveens in mesmerising coloured strips of vinyl tape. Nick Relph and Oliver Payne’s film Gentlemen marks the demise of the public toilet. Ian Davenport has made a fourteen-metre painting in which he has poured thin lines of household gloss paint in richly varied hues down the walls of the gallery. Paul Noble’s mural-sized pencil drawing of the fictional town of Nobson fuses the vernacular and the visionary in compelling detail. Susan Philipsz’s sound installation may take visitors by surprise - and provoke the strange sensation of overhearing someone singing to themselves in the gallery. Sarah Morris shows a painting and film representing structures within the Miami metropolis, while Margaret Barron’s miniature oil paintings of views around Tate Britain are positioned on various surfaces in and around the building. Cornelia Parker has wrapped a mile of string around the lovers in Auguste Rodin’s The Kiss.
Days Like These is jointly curated by Jonathan Watkins, Director of the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Judith Nesbitt, Head of Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Britain. A fully-illustrated catalogue with contributions by Judith Nesbitt, Jonathan Watkins and Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith is published to coincide with the exhibition.