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Gilbert & George
Originally uploaded by littlestar19.

Today, we headed into the Tate Modern to see the Gilbert & George exhibition. I had never heard of them before, so had no idea what to expect, whereas Dean was really wanting to see it.

The art on show was a retrospective, so started with charcoal sketches from 1969 onto work they did last year. Personally, I much preferred their early work, which was stark, black and white’s with splashes of red. Most of their work has an image of them in it somewhere. And a lot of it is quite confronting, either because of the language used, or the imagery (naked men, religious symbols etc). The later stuff though, I really didn’t like. They started working on the computer, so it just had a different feel, and they started using dodgy beveled fonts, and some of it felt like they’d knocked it up in photoshop in 10 minutes.

However, because they use images of themselves, it was like watching them grow old. 30 years worth of photos, you could watch them age before your eyes. It also meant you could see when societal attitudes started to change. In their early work, they were both pictured, but rarely together. As the years went on, they were featured closer together. The first time you see them standing next to each other, touching, is amazing. They’re also naked in that photo whcih really adds to it.

There were way too many people in the gallery though, and I felt like I was constantly pushing my way through people. This was also my first trip to a Gallery in London, so it’s probably just something I’m going to have to get used to. I’m used to the quiet of the Art Gallery in Brisbane, where I could sit and look at a painting for ages without having masses of people walk in front of me.

Now we just need to start going to galleries more, especially since they’re mostly free, and we are meant to saving money for France.