Art for the masses

---

Here are some piccies of my brother and I at a temporary exhibition at the Tate. Yep - it’s a slippery dip. Adam and I went on the longest one - it was free, but you had to line up for tickets (about 20 mins) and then you were given a ½ hour window in which you could go on the slippery dip. In our case (maybe because it was the first weekend, or maybe it will be like this until the exhibition closes in Feb) we got a ticket at 2.30 which enabled us to use the slippery dip between 7 and 7.30. Not as bad as it sounds, as we just went and did other stuff and then came back.

For anyone who is interested in the ‘who’ and ‘why’, the slides were created by Carsten Höller. Apparently, Höller is interested in “both the visual spectacle of watching people sliding and the ‘inner spectacle’ experienced by the sliders themselves, the state of simultaneous delight and anxiety that you enter as you descend”. Hmmmmm - that explains why the slippery dips (no, I will not call them slides) have see through top halves.

Apparently, the Tate one is the highest one he has done so far, the longest one there goes from the 5th floor.

The ride itself is pretty bumpy - almost like sliding down a piece of corrugated iron (not that I have ever done that….. promise), as the joins have not been smoothed over.

An unexpected highlight was that in looking at the exhibition, we saw a couple confused about whether an emergency exit was a piece of art or not. Seriously, the conversation went like this:

Person 1: Um, I don’t think that is an exhibit.
Person 2: How do you know?
Person 1: I think it’s just an exit.
Person 2: But how can you be sure?
Person 1: Because there’s no description, if it was a piece of art, it would have a sign describing it.
Person 2: Oh.

Not kidding - we even got a photo!!!! (Secretly - as no photos allowed in the Tate).

---

Photos

Tate Turbine Hall
with the slippery dips! Find my brother (an easy one)

Is it or isn't it....
an exhibit?