Tonight:
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A £70.32 grocery receipt from Morrisons joins some of the nation's greatest artworks at Tate Britain today.
Monochrome Till Receipt (White), by Ceal Floyer, is just one of the gallery's latest acquisitions going on display in a new exhibition.
Floyer describes the work as a modern still life where objects are imagined but not shown.
This is the first time the public has had the chance to see it- and conjure up its 40-odd items, all of which are white.
Visitors to the gallery can meditate on the beauty of boil-in-the-bag rice (£1.77), Sensodyne toothpaste (£2.40), and swing-bin liners (£1.69).
Under the terms laid down by Floyer, the work requires a new receipt - and therefore a shopping trip - each time it is shown.
Curator Andrew Wilson initially went to Sainsbury's - but screwed up the receipt when he realised it was an environmentally-friendly list printed on both sides of the paper, preventing spectators from seeing all the items.
It meant Sainsbury's place in art history was lost to the Camden branch of Morrisons.
Mr Wilson, who bought the groceries with his own cash and took them home, said: "It's like an imaginative leap of faith from the daily drudge of going to the supermarket to the idea of the domestic still-life painting, but also with the supposed purity of Modernist monochrome abstract painting."
Three years ago the work was given an estimated price of £30,000. Tate bought it this year for a sum it will reveal only in its next annual report.
Previous work by Floyer includes a black bin bag filled with air and beer mats propping up wobbly tables.
The exhibition also includes The Chapman Family Collection. Brothers Jake and Dinos have created a room of what appear to be African wooden sculptures, which on closer inspection refer to McDonald's - incorporating the golden arches, burgers, fries and Ronald McDonald himself.
Also on display are Damien Hirst's Pharmacy, and The Acquired Inability to Escape.
Classified: Contemporary Art at Tate Britain, runs until 23 August, admission free.
Reader views (2)
IS THE TATE RUN BY EX MPS?
- Alan Green, Woodford Green, 24/06/2009 22:12
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No peas then, because someone has already taken the p 's. Takes the biscuit though, oh sorry they are not in there either, for a complete and utter waste of money. And one billion people are starving in the world!!!
- Alan, carlisle uk, 24/06/2009 14:13
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