Steve McQueen at Tate Modern

Tate Modern presents the first major exhibition of Steve McQueen’s artwork in the UK for 20 years. From documenting one of the deepest gold mine in the world, a disoriented record of the Statue of Liberty to a memorial to the short life journey of a young boy and friend - you will sure leave the show with heaviness and lots of emotions and lingering thoughts.

The show starts with a disoriented short film of a camera circling the Statue of Liberty in a helicopter, shot shortly after the statue reopened to the public following the 9/11 attacks - showing marks of decay and rot in the bronze, the sound of the choppers. Almost every work here begs stories and interpretations. With Static (2009), once the centre and symbol of the land of freedom, here you can’t help but wonder about the future of the national icon and what it stands for.. crumbling of freedom and what’s left is rotting… It gets under the skin.

Ashes (2012-2015), was one of the films that left me thinking for a while. Shown on two sides of a single screen (kudos to the audio team how impeccable the sound system was) - on one is beautiful, sunlit footage of a young man, McQueen’s friend, Ashes, looking above and beyond the sea horizon - filled with life. The other features the sombre construction of his grave, overlay with a soundtrack of the short, literal story of his short death. The contrast of the bright colour of body, boat and ocean versus the harsh reality of gravestone, earth and concrete. This extraordinary power to convey physical experience also defines McQueen’s cinematic work.

We ended the tour with Western Deep (2002), claustrophobic 24min film documenting the life of South African miners, captured in a horrid and dark working environment. The graininess of Super 8 cinematography makes the film, along with the sense of intimacy and physical of how it was shot in close proximity. There’s certainly uncanniness in the way McQueen’s film lingers around its subject, it almost makes you feel a bit of discomfort if you stare into it too long - as McQueen has said himself - they certainly “stick to the skin” and even after hours, the feeling lingers.

Steve McQueen at Tate Modern is on from now to 11 May 2020. Tickets are £13.