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The Tate's 30mph twisters
By Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard 09.10.06
On the slide: two of the five giant helter skelters installed in the Tate's Turbine Hall by Carsten Holler. They will stay until April
The biggest slide is 55m long
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Tate Modern today unveiled the largest slide in Britain which will fill the vast Turbine Hall.
The Bankside gallery has been turned into a large playground with visitors able to travel down five large slides which spiral through the huge space connecting the galleries with Turbine Hall. The biggest slide is 55.5 metres long and has a drop of 27 metres.
See more pictures from the exhibition here
The helter skelter, entitled Test Site, is the brainchild of German installation artist Carsten Holler who sees slides as an essential mode of human transport. He wants to see slides connecting MPs with their offices and the House of Commons chamber and between shopping centres and Tube stations.
Visitors will be able to sit in canvas sacks and slide from the fifth floor to the ground, accelerating to 30mph. Three chutes depart from each of the main levels. The slides of stainless steel and polycarbonate acrylic glass will stay until next April and are the latest in the Unilever series of Turbine Hall installations.
Holler said: "Going down can be like being under the influence of a drug, a thrilling experience, but it is also a fast and efficient way of getting from A to B. It's a playground for the body and the brain. It's art and it's not art."
A spokesman for Tate said that Hˆller viewed slides as a way of directly improving people's state of mind and livelihoods.
He said: "The installation is an experiment into the reception of slides by the public and the effect they have. Hˆller's proposition is that slides could and perhaps should be incorporated into existing architecture and future buildings ... because the frequent act of sliding could bring about untold changes in our everyday behaviour and outlook."
Holler made a giant slide at the headquarters of fashion company Prada connecting its boss Miuccia Prada's personal office to her car.
Perhaps predictably Charles Thomson, Stuckist artist and longstanding critic of the Tate, criticised the slide: "Slides are not art. All (Tate director) Sir Nicholas Serota needs to do is to get rid of the few bits of art the Tate does possess. Then he could turn the whole of Tate Modern into a theme park."
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Reader views (13)
This is amazing I have been! but this is not art lol, People do not go to Thorpe Park or Alton Towers to look at art its a ride. If you put a bouncy castle in the Tate would that be art no, however aesthetically pleasing its design it would still be a bouncy castle or in other words a ride. However its true everyone has their own opinion of what art is but lets not be ridiculous. This is a good attraction and creates good revenue so those with a real interest in art still have an incredible place to visit.
- Paul, London
Hi,is the Goant slide still at the Tate Gallery? We are visiting soon and want to take a ride? Thanks, Joyce & Brian in California!
- Joyce Granville, San Francisco Bay Area USA
I think the slides are a brilliant way of incorporting art into our everyday lives, although they are not traditional art, we do not live in a traditional country any more so they are moving with the times, it is also putting fun back into art that so many young people take for granted. Art can be percieved however the person wants, one man's slide is another man's art. I, myself think it is a fantastic idea as it envokes happiness and the fun of art in me. I just love it.
- Chelsea, Southend-on-sea, England
We went here on our Art trip on Spring Break! But that's besides the point. My teacher says art is creating things that haven't been created before, and I certainly haven't seen anything like those slides incorporated in that way before. So it's not on a canvas, so what? And I totally agree about the "Art is something that can evoke emotion..." thing Marc, good thing to make a point about.
- Helen Ward, Southaven, MS, United States
Karl - London. Take a chill pill. OK so they are not Pollock, Picasso or even Hirst, but who are you to tell me or anyone else for that matter they are not art. Art is defined and percieved by each individual differently - and beauty most certainly is in the eye of the beholder. Art is something that can evoke emotion whether it be Rage, Jealousy, Regret or even Happiness and Joy. Please take my advice, go to the TM, take a ride on the 5th floor slide and try not to break into a smile like a kid in a sweet shop. I did yesterday and haven't stopped smiling since, one of the most interesting and fun exhibitions I have attended.
- Marc, London
What on earth do slides have to do with art? I've seen them, I've been down one of them, I've still not got the answer. What a waste of time these things are. Pointless rides which have no place in an art gallery in my opinion. Sure ir may be a good place to sump the kids while you wander round and look at some actual art but for what it's worth, I think they could have done a lot better with the space they have. Poor show chaps.
- Karl, London
I think the idea of moving, hands-on, body-in art is terrific.
We saw the slides being built when my family and I viewed Kandinsky. We were intrigued by the forms, so I guess it is ART!
What fun to be 'in' the art.
We can't wait to have a go. Might see you there, too! Have fun.
- Sara, Folkestone, Kent, UK
I wasn't sure about the slides when I first heard about them and they certainly don't appear to be art, but then again very little modern are does to me these days. Going down certainly raised the spirits and although people are encouraged to contemplate the experience as one would experiencing a masterpiece I dont think most people "got it".
Great fun though and yet again a novel use of the space by the Tate.
- Thomas, Fulham
These should be compulsory fire exits in every building!
- Jay, London
Arrange your boring meetings during slide time!
- Stuart Roweth, London
How vastly would all of our dispositions be improved if we could add this element of fun to our everyday lives... Wonderful idea!
- Michelle, Washington, DC, USA
Brilliant! I love seeing some everyday item transformed into a work of art.
- Peter, Cincinnati, OH, USA
I can't think of a better way to leave the office than a thrill ride. Great idea. I don't care what the art critics think.
- Myob, Atlanta, GA USA
