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Last weekend's opening of Turner Contemporary saw a reported 15,000 visitors flock to the stunning new Margate art gallery designed by David Chipperfield RA.
The gallery's first exhibition, 'Revealed: Turner Contemporary Opens', features work by six contemporary artists, four of whom created new work for the occasion, inspired - like the gallery's namesake JMW Turner - by the scenery of the North Kent coast.
New York-based, Kent-born artist Ellen Harvey’s newly-commissioned work Arcadia features a scale reproduction of the gallery a 29-year-old Turner built to recreate to house his work. Inside, the paintings that covered the walls at the time of his death have been replaced by illuminated depictions of Margate.
Ellen Harvey, installation view at Turner Contemporary. Arcadia 2011 (interior), mixed media installation. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Gebruder Lehmann, Locks Gallery and Meessen de Clercq. Image ©David Grandorge
In the audio clip below, Harvey tells us about this concept of a gallery within a gallery, and the painstaking hand-drawn engravings it contains - "A very OCD love letter to Margate":
Sculptor Conrad Shawcross has also created a new work for the exibition. His multimedia installation The Perfect Third features sculpture, a machine and series of drawings in which the artist explores his obsession with the most beautiful chord in music.
Conrad Shawcross, installation view at Turner Contemporary. Projections of the Perfect Third 2011, Left to right: Limit of Everything (5:4) 2011, metal, oak, mechanical system, light, dimensions variable; Harmonic Manifold 1 (5:4) 2011, cast bronze, 225 x 70 x 70 cm; Perfect Third (5:4 ) 1-5 2011, all ink on paper, 300 x 70 cm. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London. Image ©David Grandorge
In this audio clip, Shawcross explains the maths behind the almost mystical idea of the 'perfect third':
Finally, we spoke to Royal Academician Michael Craig-Martin about his neon sculpture Turning Pages, which hangs on the wall over the reception and is the only permanent piece at Turner Contemporary:
View of Michael Craig Martin's 'Turning Pages'. Richard Bryant/Arcaidimages.com
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