The turbine hall of the old power station is cathedral-like. Its dimensions and proportions, the windows at each end and the choir-screen bridge that divides the nave space of the entrance from the space beyond are churchy. As an art gallery, it is demanding. When the long red horn of Anish Kapoor's Marsyas filled the box the scale was exhilarating in itself, but it made the hall feel like a shed. Housing Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project, it became a theatre of illusions. It tends to perform best when the scale of the work matches that of the hall.
LRB 4 November 2004 | PDF Download
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