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Visitor injured on first day of Tate 'black hole' exhibit
Felix Allen and Louise Jury14 Oct 2009
A visitor was injured at Tate Modern's new pitch-black art installation in the Turbine Hall - when he walked into a wall he could not see.
How It Is, by Polish artist Miroslaw Balka, had been open to the public for only a few hours when it claimed its first casualty yesterday.
The huge, container-like box is lined with light-absorbing material so that visitors can see nothing but blackness when they are inside.
Despite the gallery's safety measures, a pensioner became the first to discover the potential danger lurking in the artwork - the latest in a series of Tate Modern installations that have left visitors hobbling away in pain.
Witnesses said the man had been groping around in the dark, as the artist intended, when his face met the back wall with a bang. He was seen being escorted away, with blood on his suit and a lump on his nose, before being treated by first-aid staff.
He was one of 12,500 people who flocked to see How It Is on its opening day. The steel box - 13 metres high, 10 metres wide and 30metres long - is the tenth of Tate Modern's annual Turbine Hall commissions sponsored by Unilever.
About 60 people are allowed inside at a time. The gallery said: "We have measures to ensure visitor safety for How It Is."
In May, 23 Tate visitors suffered minor injuries in one week at Robert Morris's Bodyspacemotionthings, in which members of the public were encouraged to negotiate see-saws, tightropes and other obstacles.
Carsten Höller's stainless steel slides in 2006 led to several injuries as people shot out at the bottom. And two years ago, 15 people were hurt in the first four weeks of Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth, a crack running the length of the hall.
The gallery's insurers are handling two compensation claims from members of the public.
A Tate spokesman said today: "Over 12,500 people visited the installation yesterday. There was one incident and the visitor was attended to immediately by staff trained in first aid. Tate takes issues of health and safety very seriously." How It Is is runs until 5 April.
Reader views (8)
But surely THIS is exactly what this inspired work of art was trying to say - it`s what you CAN`T see that you should be worried about - so if it doesn`t appear to be there - be fearfull!
A perfect comment on our paranoid society, in fact!
A bargain at just over half a million.
- Darius The Pretentious, London UK, 14/10/2009 15:38
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How fast were they going to hit a wall they didn't know was there?
- Bazza, Landan, 14/10/2009 15:01
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DreamLand in Margate had something similar to this for years - it was called The Pharoah's Tomb. It gave you exactly the same experience AND it wouldn't have cost £600,000. But then again it's not their money is it?
- Rob, London, 14/10/2009 14:30
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Really funny,seems as if its been set up to help the Tate spend millions in compensation.
- Linda, italy, 14/10/2009 14:15
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See! It's art! It's dark! You can't see it! Mwahahahahahaha!!
- Nigel, London, 14/10/2009 14:06
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Art? Hmm...
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 14/10/2009 13:16
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Unilever sponsored this black box but the Tate spent £600,000 on it. Surely Unilever could have donated a freight container instead. The container could then have been reused after the exhibition. Punters looking for black hole entertainment could do better by going to their local fun fair and travelling on the ghost train!
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, Surrey, 14/10/2009 12:37
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Insurance claims made after people enter a pitch black box, to hilarious for words!
- Les, London, 14/10/2009 12:02
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