Paul Fitzpatrick was dazzled by the latest Unilever Commission at Tate Modern.
The monumental vastness of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern stands as a daunting challenge even for the most ambitious of artists.
Turner Prize-winning sculptor Rachel Whiteread is the latest to respond to the space with her installation Embankment.
On show until April 2 2006, the work was unveiled on October 10 2005 and takes up much of the lower half of the hall. As I walked down the ramp towards the piece it felt like walking into a winter wonderland; an effect created by blocks (14,000 in all) of white polyethylene arranged into various shapes and towers.
"The first part of it is very organised," said Whiteread, "as if it's like a warehouse but as you walk into the Turbine Hall the light gets more intense and these stacks and mountains and boxes start to look like landscape."
And so it does. The idea for the piece came about, she said, while unpacking boxes during a house-move.
Like much of her work, Embankment is concerned with themes of memory and absence. The semi-translucent quality of its light recalls a recent trip she made to the Arctic as part of an initiative highlighting climate change.
It's the sixth commission in the annual Unilever Series at Tate Modern. Past artists who have filled the hall include Louise Bourgeois, Spanish artist Juan Munoz, Bruce Naumann and Olafur Eliasson (whose Weather Project had hundreds of people visiting to sunbathe in its illuminating glow). The first British artist commissioned was Anish Kapoor with Marsyas in 2002.
Whiteread's previous work includes the famous (or infamous) House, a life-sized cast of a condemned terrace house in east London.
More recently her sculpture Monument occupied the empty plinth at Trafalgar Square with a cast of the plinth itself — Whiteread's no stranger to controversy.
"Rachel Whiteread has created a work which," commented Vincente Todoli, Director of Tate Modern, "despite the enormity of its scale, conveys a familiarity that is both intimate and overwhelming."
On a sunlit autumn morning immersed in its icy white space I thought, as the nights draw in this landscape will come into its own.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG, England
T: 020 7887 8888
Open: Open Sunday-Thursday, 10.00-1800 and Fri & Sat 10.00-22.00
Closed: Closed 24-26 December
