Year 9 pupils visit Tate Modern

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Should art be beautiful? Should art only bring happiness? 

No, these aren't essay questions! Year 9 went to the Tate Modern on Monday and Tuesday to ponder these thoughts for ourselves.

Having just completed a scenic walk from London Bridge (despite the gloomy January weather!) we found ourselves face to face with the dramatic sloping entrance of the Tate Modern, a former power station. Sitting down in the Turbine Hall for our lunch, one could see a series of reindeer hides, stretching to the ceiling, suspended on metal rods, while strange sounds were playing around the hall. 

This was the exhibit Goavve-Geabbil by the Sami artist Máret Ánne Sara, addressing exploitation and adaptation to changes in the natural environment. 

We made our way through rooms showcasing art from around the world: representations of the bodies piled after a massacre in French colonial Algeria, for example, and what seemed like a jumble of ASCII letters in red font. Passing through more rooms, we came to harrowing murals depicting the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, in black and white, murals showing Buddhist monks, women in niqabs, all begging for mercy, kneeling.

We passed through slightly less harrowing rooms of still-life paintings and photography of fruit, until we made it to a wall of posters by a group of artists known as the Guerilla Girls:

"What's fashionable, prestigious and tax deductible? Discriminating against women and non-white artists."

Would that make us laugh? Would it anger us that we live in a world still gripped by prejudice?

It is up to each viewer to decide.

One thing is for certain, the artworks we saw at the Tate Modern would make any visitor think more deeply about the world we live in.

Article by Farjad (Year 9)