Overlooking the Turbine Hall
Overlooking the Turbine Hall
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Size: 101 × 76 × 2 cm
The Turbine Hall was once the heart of Bankside Power Station. Coal arrived by barge along the Thames and was burnt to generate electricity for London. The noise, heat and bustle of that industrial world have long since gone, replaced by one of the world’s most visited contemporary art galleries, Tate Modern.
One night, standing in the vast hall and looking up at the floors opposite, I found myself reflecting on that transformation. The repeating bands of electric light stretched across the building, a reminder of the very energy the power station had once produced. Against the grey concrete structure, the lights formed a rhythmic pattern.
The painting’s black-and-white palette was influenced, in part, by the building’s coal-powered past. The scratched and textured surface echoes something of the dust and energy that once filled the space.
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