Steel Conceals at Tate Modern

Miroslaw Balka's "How It Is" is the newest addition to the Unilever Series at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. Comprising nothing but a gigantic steel container set within the converted factory space, "How It Is" strikes you with its plainness (earlier installations in the series include Dominique Gonzalez Foerster's post-apocalyptic sculpture jungle, and Olafur Eliasson's artificial sun that mimicked with startling naturalism and scope the weather outside). But this installation transforms the space in its own, looming way--recalling the intensity and mystery of a skyscraper in the dark, or an abandoned vessel deep in the ocean.

By virtue of its orientation, the structure demands that we approach it from behind, walking its length (brimming with curiosity as to the contents!) before we reach the ramped entrance leading inside. Other visitors were already breaching the dark interior abyss when I arrived, and I followed, albeit cautiously, up the ramp. Once in the void, a person becomes all but enveloped by the darkness within a few steps. As I stumbled forward, a band of strangers barely visible around me, I couldn't help feeling as if I had fallen into some kind of exodus--the Jews leaving Israel, or the straggling Tutsis escaping Rwanda in the final days of the genocide.

The artwork label I read on my way in had referenced the piece's ability to induce a kind of personal self-awareness on the part of the participant; this may well have been the case had I walked the plank alone. But on a busy New Year's Day, the experience was a communal one. We giggled, reached for each other, and even in the quiet felt each other's presence in the echo of shuffling footsteps. Transformed into greyscale shadows (no brunettes or blondes, men or women, hipsters or straight-edges) we were glad for each other's company in those 30 meters of the unknown.

Has anyone seen any of Balka's other work? I look forward to exploring more!