The former power station converted into a gallery in 2000 stood for many years as a symbol of industry, both an echo and a challenge to St Pauls, just across the Thames.
The original symbolic relationship between these two cathedrals has developed, through Herzog and De Meuron’s
intervention, into a dialogue between art and religion. This is emphasised by the creation of Norman Foster’s Millenium Bridge, which directly links the south axis of St. Paul’s with the north entrance to the Tate Modern. The relationship of these symbolic structures however is an uneasy one that terminates in the view from a secondary bookshop adjacent to the Tates’s north entrance. We were asked to convert this bookshop into a gallery and create within it a new window which would define this relationship more clearly. We redressed the awkwardness of the relationship of the bridge, gallery and cathedral by creating a window that directs the vision along the bridge and up to the dome of St. Paul’s
The space was designed to house the 2004 exhibition series ‘Untitled:’ an ‘exploration of the human condition in public and private environments and the representation of space in these spheres’.
We took up these themes in our own design: the gallery was created with a simple glass wall to the entrance foyer allowing this public area to flow seamlessly into an exhibition space, and a large, low level window so the gallery could be viewed from outside as well as from within and be seen even at night.
During the project, we cooperated with artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Bragset on their inaugural exhibition. One installation consisted of an animatronic sparrow in his death throes, trapped inexplicably within a sealed peephole window. The provocative display sparked much debate and hundreds of interpretations. It challenged ideas of space and privacy: the bird, a symbol of open space trapped in a tiny enclosure and death, the most private of acts exposed to the public eye.
This was one of our smallest and most exciting commissions. We were able to approach architecture as a visual art form and work within an iconic structure..