After several weeks of feeling frustrated because I couldn’t escape to a gallery due to work and family commitments, my eldest son and I made it over to Tate Modern to see Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Both of us were blown away by her colours, striking compositions and geometric shapes. My son was fascinated by how Tauber-Arp’s environment affected her output, highlighted in the curation.
Nowadays, I am most interested in work that refuses to be just one thing. Taeuber-Arp, according to the Tate booklet, “challenges the historically constructed boundaries separating art, craft and design”, and the exhibition did not disappoint. Her puppets were exactly the sort of thing I love – evocative and compelling, putting me in touch with something I can’t quite describe, locked away in childhood dreams and fantasies. It’s really good for me to spend time with this sort of work, as it gives me permission to keep heading off in various directions, reconnect with a pre-photography acting life, and not worry too much about remaining within the confines of ‘the photograph’. Of course, I do still shoot in the expected way, not least because it is part of my job. And I’m not sure people asking for headshots would be all that impressed if I cut their faces out and replaced them with a close up of someone’s speckled and scarred thigh skin or a crumpled piece of paper.
My son and I had a super morning, and I was pleased to capture the Turbine Hall as seen below, while they prepare themselves to open up as a vaccination centre this evening.
