November 2009

Dear All,
I struggle with modem art. Videos, 'installations', unmade beds, animals pickled in aspic... these things don't do a lot for me but I suspect I’m becoming part of a minority. The Tate Gallery now has outposts in Liverpool and St Ives and is currently packing the visitors in at its Bankside site in London. The current 'draw' for the crowds is an installation by Miroslaw Balka called How it is.

How it is is a large metal box. It is 30m long, 10m wide and 13m high. Inside it is lined with a black flock that soaks up all light. Visitors are invited to walk up a ramp into the box and to make what they can of the darkness. Alternatively they can wander around underneath the installation listening to the footsteps and muffled sounds of those in the box above them. I found the review of the art work on the Tate website helpful:

How It Is alludes to recent Polish history - for example, the ramp at the entrance to the Ghetto in Warsaw, or the trucks which took Jews away to the camps of Treblinka  or Auschwitz. By entering the dark space, visors place considerable trust in the organisation, something akin to the risks often taken by immigrants travelling. Balka intends to provide an experience for visitors which is both personal and collective,  creating a range of sensory and emotional experiences through sound, contrasting light and shade, individual experience and awareness of others, perhaps provoking feelings of apprehension, excitement or intrigue.

Artists cannot prescribe how the public experience their work however. For all the resonances, listed in the review above, that challenge visitors to engage with the serious subjects of genocide and immigration, one response to the art work was perhaps not anticipated: the ubiquitous mobile phone! Visitors gearing up to enter the abyss of darkness have found that some alongside them cannot resist the temptation to switch on the lights on their phones, to take photographs and to make calls to their friends.

At this time of year our Christian calendar encourages us to reflect on the hard subjects of death, decay and judgement. But as the winter light lessens, sometime soon false electric lights will seek to distract us from our reflection and prayers. However, much darkness in our world and indeed within ourselves is real and it is best for us to face it with realism... and the hope that the one true Light is coming into the world.