The turbine room in London's Tate Modern is one of the features of the building that has in the past received the most schtick. It's big. Too big, many say, for anything to use the space well. The current installation there has given me more to think about than I could try to write down in a brief post, but I would still like to share the thought with you.
Currently Carsten Höller is the artist who has the massive turbine room space at his disposal. He's made these massive slides:
What's interesting about them is not their use of the space (which isn't bad, I guess), but the stress and fun (or better phrased, "simultaneous delight and anxiety") of both watching people slide, or actually sliding through them. They're popular enough that I had to go back there a second time (mornings are best) just to get a spot on the one from the 5th floor.
Wouldn't it be great if things like these were installed all around towns and cities? What would life be like if we could slide around like that every day? I think it's a bit of a reminder to have some fun (or at the very least give yourself a little scare) every day. Much like the people in the famed London Red Bull headquarters must do with this one below...
So anyway, I slid down the gullet of the dune worm sculpture, ignoring its phallic properties. I felt envigorated. Much like a jog, or a walk in the mountain, but with a better more interesting twist. Someone once said that you should do something every day that scares you. This is a minor version. There are hundreds of carrot-up-the-rump people I know who would probably be a heck of a lot cooler if they had to slide to work every day.
**
To slide off the slides in the Modern is free, but to go off the level 3 and 5 slides you need a timed ticket, available in the gallery. They're valid for the time on them, and allow you to slide once. Oh, and no, they don't let you go head first.
**Holler is known for his interactive art, such as Flying Machine that hoisted people through the air and Upside Down Goggles that well, modify vision, shall we say.
Posted by the yak on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments 
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10:10 PM