Tacita Dean’s Weihnachtsbaum is the twenty-second Christmas tree commissioned by Tate Britain, and is described beautifully by the Guardian’s Johnathan Jones as “unpretentious, melancholy, exact”. Very, very well put.
The tree ended it’s run on the 23rd, but I offer it as a holiday greeting to anyone and everyone who lands at this site. Pour yourself a nog (or your holiday hooch of choice) and enjoy.
Dear Sirs,
Congratulations on your beautiful tree and Merry belated Christmas!
It is hilarious to watch your institution commission a Christmas tree and transform a timeless tradition into an art event. Especially amusing was the transformation of lighting the candles into a “performance”. It is better to leave that kind of speech at the office, no?
It was revealing to hear how Ms. Dean resorted to antiquated decoration techniques when she reached decorative crossroads (as for the top of the tree for example). It produced the thrill of seeing an artist’s aesthetic vision overcome by tradition. That is understandable. After all, creation is exhausting. Embracing tradition and mythologies can be a soothing form of R&R for both the artist and the public. It seems as well that decorating a tree exerts a sort of aesthetic of its own upon the decorator.
This said I found the use of the weights to ballast the candles an interesting detail. It resonates with the maritime elements of Dean’s work.
Otherwise the tree, a powerful pagan object in its own right, forgives your intentions to perform a sort of laying of the hands on it by asking a well known artist to decorate it.
Perhaps anonymity would have been the preferable tack when naming a decorator? It would have enabled you to begin weening the public off of names and brands and their power to determine the value of artworks.