Tate Britain
26 February – 26 May 2003
Days Like These is the second Tate Triennial exhibition of contemporary British art. Featuring the work of twenty-three artists, it encompasses painting, sculpture, film, video, photography and sound works. A cross-generational selection, it provides an opportunity to see the work of emerging artists such as Gillian Carnegie, Jim Lambie and the duo Relph and Payne alongside new work by more established artists including Richard Hamilton, Cornelia Parker, Richard Deacon, and Rachel Whiteread. A counterpart to the annual Turner Prize, the Tate Triennial exhibition allows visitors to see and experience some of the artistic cross-currents which make the contemporary scene a wide open field.
The artists in Days Like These have not been selected to illustrate a theme, but rather for the pure vitality of their recent work. Whatever their medium, artists today are scrutinising art and its history as closely as they scrutinise the world we live in. 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 will present new large-scale work, while George Shaw will show meticulously detailed landscape paintings of suburban estates in the Midlands where he lives and works. David Batchelor will build an illuminated tower using industrial shelving and highly coloured perspex, to create a glowing column stretching the full height of the Duveen galleries. Ian Davenport’s drip painting in household emulsion will allow colour to run down the walls of the gallery, whilst Tim Head will present pixilated colour in an infinitely changing digital projection. Nicholas Relph and Oliver Payne’s short films take a sometimes angry, sometimes dreamy, always passionate view of the urban landscape around them. 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 visitor unawares - and provoke the strange sensation of overhearing someone singing to themselves in the gallery.
The exhibition occupies not only the Level 2 Exhibition Galleries, but also the central Duveen galleries, sculpture court and public circulation spaces in and around the building.
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 will be published to coincide with the exhibition.