Tate - Strongest and Strangest Room

The strangest room in the Tate Modern Gallery of which I have visited for my ongoing contextual project was definitely created by Sheela Gowda. Walking in and being surrounded in real human hair that was hand woven by Gowda was nothing short of strange. It was powerful however it wasn't the strongest room that I walked into. This was created by Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, who put together several tv screens. The actual piece of work however wasn't the thing that made it the strongest though. It was how the room was set up for the display. The room was incredibly dark with the main light source coming from the televisions themselves. It meant that viewers of the public were drawn in and consumed by the work of Chetwynd. 

There are many ways in which the rooms exhibiting the work of Sheela Gowda and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd can be compared. They have some similarities, such as the themes they were influenced by, and some differences such as the way they chose to display their work. It is interesting to see that despite the sixteen year age gap, an amount of time in which a lot of social norms can change, they are both interesting in representing the same themes and ideas. The different styles that each have used has taught me what is effective and what isn’t. For example Gowda’s work was of a large scale and covered an entire room, however Chetwynd’s physical piece of work is in one corner of his designated room, but the room is dark and so the light illuminating from the screens draws you in and when seated on the beanbags in front makes you feel as if the scale is bigger than it truly is. Gowda worked in sculpture and upon walking in the room and discovering the media that she used was human hair, despite being impressed I was left feeling strange and slightly disgusted due to the thought of who's it was and how old it was. I love sculpture however I also love video and I feel as though Chetwynd has combined the two in perfect harmony. The images displayed on the screen seamed together provide the interesting video, along with the way in which the screens are arranged makes it more of an installation piece. Therefore I would argue that Chetwynd’s work is stronger. The power in which it had over it’s audience was amazing to see. I saw first hand that captured faces of the viewers who were onlooking what Chetwynd

had produced. It wasn’t just the piece of work but the way that it was displayed that made it stronger than the work of Sheela Gowda.