This winter, the Tate Britain looks like it’s been through a lot – let’s be honest, who hasn’t as we near the end of 2019? But it’s not just a sign of the times: courtesy of artist Anne Hardy, the London gallery has taken a turn towards the apocalyptic for its winter commission.
The front of the gallery is hung with ragged banners and strings of lights that look as if they’ve seen better days (all just in time for Christmas). On the steps, meanwhile, there’s more scattered fabric and sculpted objects that look like the remains of a long-fallen-down temple.
An accompanying, 21-minute soundscape includes sounds like water and rolling thunder. It’s all a bit apocalyptic, and very pagan.
In fact, talking to AnOther Magazine about the artwork – The Depth of Darkness, The Return of the Light – Hardy explains that the title: “is a description of the winter solstice… that (she) found in a guide about how to celebrate pagan festivals.”
“I wanted to work with the Tate façade but change its mood,” the RCA graduate adds. “To treat is as a found object and to think about how it might be if it wasn’t the Tate, or had been overcome by natural events.”
Get down to the Tate Britain to see the winter commission in situ (if it’s not already become a reality). Or, if you can’t make it, watch Sasha Velour, Munroe Bergdorf & Leo Kalyan take a tour of the gallery and respond to their favourite artworks instead.