TATE BRITAIN. PHANTOM RIDE.FROM 11TH MARCH 2013.

Tate Britain
12 March – 20 October 2013

Open every day from 10:00 – 18:00. Free Admission

Tate Britain today unveils a major new commission: Phantom Ride, by Turner-Prize winning artist Simon Starling (born 1967). Since 2012, a leading contemporary artist has been invited each year to develop a work inspired by Tate’s Collection for the Tate Britain Commission, supported by Sotheby’s. In response, Starling has created a film installation that haunts the grand neoclassical Duveen galleries at Tate Britain with ghosts of artworks that have occupied this space in the past.

Phantom rides were films made in the late nineteenth century. Often filmed by a cameraman strapped to the front of a train, they gave the audience a dramatic sense of motion, as if travelling on an invisible vehicle. Echoing this tradition, Starling’s film invites visitors on a ride where a compelling flow of images creates a sensation of floating up to the gallery’s 15 metre high ceilings or swooping down to encounter artworks. Filmed with a now invisible motion control camera, the mechanical sounds of its motors and tracks form an evocative soundtrack.