The Tate again

On my second recent visit to The Tate, I focused mainly on the collection of works shown in the gallery other than the main show of 'Nam June Paik'. I have also seen the majority of these pieces exhibited a number of times, although I spent much more time reflecting on a collection of the works and how they related to my own.

Antony Gormley's 'Bed, 1980-81', I was drawn to on entering the room. I found this piece fascinating, not only by its appearence but from reading the information explaining the work.
Gormley describes sculpture as 'a visual means to refer to things which cannot be seen'. He frequently employs casts of his own body as a vehicle for investigating mans physical and spiritual relationship to the world around him. In 'Bed' he uses the space left by his consumption of his body mass in slices of bread to represent 'the infinity of space within the body'. The work is also a metaphor for the Catholic ritual of consuming the body and spirit of Christ, symbolised by bread, through the taking of the sacriment.

I related this piece to my own, simply because he is using and exploring the body's physical form to create a relationship; using photography and my own words, my intentions are similar, but with a completely different outcome. 

Gillian Wearing 'Sign's, 1992-93', suprised me instantly as on previously witnessing these works on line I originally thought the prints of this series would be much smaller than shown. The quality of these images were also much clearer than I assumed (seen as they were taken in the 1990's), wether these have been edited I don't know but they deffinately worked well as a whole. 
Wearing's series of 'Signs' shows the range of responses from passers-by she stopped at random in the street and asked to scribble down their thoughts. With there permission she then photographed them holding their statement. As indicated by the title, Wearing emphasises that this collaberation with the public departs from the usual technique of photo journalism with 'the subjects' clear collusion and engineering of their own representation'. In documenting, framing and then exhibiting these responses, Wearing draws attention to the disparity between public image and private person. 

Very different to Antony's piece, I related 'Signs' to my own because of her use of incorporating the public into the work. Doing this by appraching people at random, I wanted the public to incorporate themselfs into my piece; unconsiously getting an insight into my life.