It consists of a new paved terrace into which the words ‘Remembered Skies’ have been spelled out in illuminated letters, situated between the Clore Gallery – the home of JMW Turner’s paintings – and the Clore Centre for school visits to Tate Britain.
Martin Boyce is best known for his atmospheric installations recalling archetypal 20th century landscapes, such as the urban park, the abandoned garden and the corporate lobby, as well as modernist interior motifs and objects like fireplaces and lamps. Many of his works incorporate text, written in an angular typeface developed from a repeat pattern designed by the artist and based on the geometric shape of four concrete trees created by the modernist sculptors Jan and Joe Martel in 1925.
For his new work at Tate Britain, Boyce has developed a ‘fractured’ version of this repeat pattern to produce a new terrace outside the Clore Gallery. The spaces between the custom cast concrete paving give way to illuminated letters. With some letters orientated upside down and on their side, the constellation of tumbling shapes deliberately slows down the act of reading, requiring the viewer to piece together the phrase ‘Remembered Skies’ by walking across the work and seeing it from different angles.
The texts and phrases that Boyce has used in his work over the years come from a wide variety of sources. Some are found in literature, others written by the artist himself while others might be overheard or misread then altered and rewritten.
Tate Britain’s Clore Gallery is home to the world’s largest collection of JMW Turner’s work, including a large-scale free display of over 100 paintings, as well as thousands of sketches and watercolours accessible to the public in the Prints and Drawings Room.