My visits to Tate Britain never cease to intrigue as I’m always surprised by new artworks on display, exhibiting a breadth of ideas about the world. The purpose of my visit was to see one thing in particular – Tracey Emin’s bed, a piece I was most excited to see having heard much about the context in which it was made but I found myself making my way through the gallery space and being drawn to a completely different artistic specimen. ‘The Dancer’ by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, 1913.
‘The Dancer’ in its case
Made from cast materials, I was fascinated by the way Gaudier-Brzeska captured movement of the subject and how walking around the case protecting the sculpture, observing from different perspectives, created the illusion of the permanently frozen object actually dancing. Usually I show little interest in sculptures because to me they lack depth but being able to move around this one exposed the life in the inanimate.
Reanne Bolah 