Tate Britain Commission: The Asset Strippers, Artist - Mike Nelson Tate Britain described The Asset Strippers as ‘somewhere between a sculpture court and an asset strippers’ warehouse. …
Similar to the ancient artefacts displayed in museums, Mike Nelson presents remnants from a bygone era’.
The landscape of artefacts aside, the thing that most permeated an unforgettable experience, for me, was the smell in the galleries - the smell of my late father when he returned from work at the factory where he worked as a machine tool fitter.
It’s the smell of lathes and metal, tools and 1980’s industrial discord, machining lubricants and sweat.
I vividly remember the light in those factories from when I was visiting as a boy as well; a very particular kind of suffused light. It creates piercing highlights and dirty shadows. I tried to capture them in these photographs.
