By: Briana Muller, Spring 2020 London Correspondent
In Jay-Z’s hit song, “Picasso Baby,” he mentions the Tate Modern museum. So, of course, my friends and I made this museum a priority on our London Bucket List. If Jay-Z mentioned it in one of his songs, it had to be a must-see, am I right?! The Tate gained more popularity than ever and surpassed the British Museum as the most popular museum in the country. Entry and most exhibitions inside were free, which was awesome. The floor plan was very open and spacious which was different because most museums are cluttered with artifacts to show off.
I was grateful to see free incredible displays such as the Hyundai Commission, Performer and Participant, Media Networks, Materials and Objects, and Living Cities. These exhibitions consisted of fountains, fruits, sculptures, you name it! All of these were so different but I would say my personal favorite were the Media Networks displays. There were a total of 13 rooms full of objects that were all so diverse in contemporary art. Objects such as Coca-Cola bottles, radios, paintings, photographs, sculptures, projectors, videos, statues, and how feminism plays in the media. This exhibition targeted a lot of topics and that is why I enjoyed it so much.
My favorite piece was a tower of radios from different ages. This piece of artwork, Babel, was created by Cildo Meireles in 2001. The bottom tier consisted of large radios dating back to the 1920’s to the smaller mass-produced electronic radios from years ago which formed the top of the tower. By using radios of decreasing size from the floor to the ceiling, Meireles enhanced the tower’s height. It caught my attention because I heard it from down the hall. All of the stacked radios were connected to satellites playing different voices and media on the radio which was something I’ve never seen before in a museum. He refers to Babelas a ‘tower of incomprehension’. It represents how information can be an overload and therefore, failed communication. It consisted of hundreds of radios where each was tuned to a different station. This sculpture relates to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, a tower tall enough to reach the heavens. The correlation was that God was offended by this structure, and caused the builders to speak in different languages. This caused everyone to no longer understand one another and they became divided and scattered across the earth; So began all of mankind’s conflicts. It was an appealing piece of art that had a beautiful story behind it, like most of the Tate’s pieces.
The Tate Modern is by far the most interesting museum for not only contemporary British art, but art in general. No museum in the USA, or in London, can compare to how much I enjoyed visiting this museum. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, from the art pieces to the spacious building. On top of the amazing exhibitions, it’s completely free! I highly recommend the Tate Modern as a must-see for anyone who is visiting London.
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