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Is the new Tate sculpture all it's cracked up to be?
Last updated at 00:22am on 09.10.07It is billed as a powerful metaphor for the problem of integrating immigrants into European society.
The more basic description is a ruddy great crack in the floor.
This is Shibboleth, the latest controversial installation in the massive Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern gallery on the South Bank of the Thames.
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Jagged edge: A Tate Staff member inspects Colombian artist Doris Salcedo's work Shibboleth - a 500ft crack along the length of the floor in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall
The 550ft fissure starts as a hairline crack and widens to about a foot across. It cost about £300,000 and took more than six months to complete.
While it might seem as if a gang of cowboy builders simply took a drill to the floor of the hall, its creator, Colombian artist Doris Salcedo, said it involved delicate and intricate sculpting which took place on two continents.
Miss Salcedo, 49, refused to say how she managed seemingly to crack open a concrete floor.
Salcedo's work aims to highlight divisions in society
"What is important is the meaning of the piece. The making of it is not important."
Asked how deep the fissure goes, she replied: "It's bottomless. It's as deep as humanity."
She added: "I always try to relate my work to tragedy."
Gallery managers were anxious to avoid any tragedies of their own, however, and had to secure health-and-safety clearance from Southwark Council before allowing the work to go ahead.
A Tate Modern spokesman said: "You would struggle to get a hand or foot inside because of the way it is constructed.
"We have leaflets at the entrance warning people to be careful as they approach, particularly if they have young children.
"It is an incredibly powerful installation."
The Turbine Hall exhibits are always a talking point in the art world and beyond.
Last year helter-skelter slides plunged visitors 180ft to the ground through a series of hair-raising bends.
Reader views (3)
It's just a crack, isn't it?
The artist sounds pretentious. A work of art has to earn its profundity. Does this?
- Sidney Marks, Brighton, England
I think it looks fabulous. It is an imaginative and creative use of an incredible space.
When are people going to get over themselves and realise it can be art and you don't have to like it for it to be art!
- Stuart, UK
I'm afraid we fall into the what a load of rubbish school of thinking, and shan't bother going to see this.
- Annabelle, London
