richard tuttle drapes winged sculpture with textiles for turbine hall

richard tuttle sets monumental winged sculpture within turbine hall
all images © andrew dunkley, tate photography

the vast industrial architecture of tate modern‘s turbine hall welcomes its latest commission: a monumental, textile-based sculpture by american artist richard tuttle. suspended within the gallery expanse, ‘I don’t know, or the weave of textile language’ resembles a colossal airplane wing, draped in richly-hued red and amber sheets. vast sways of fabrics designed by the artist from both man-made and natural fibers undulate overhead in bold and brilliant colors. for this project, tuttle has taken textile — commonly associated with craft and fashion — and transformed it into a 3-dimensional canvas on a huge scale, simultaneously investigating the importance of this material throughout history.

the installation within turbine hall is tuttle’s largest work to date and is presented from now unitl april 6th 2015. ‘I don’t know, or the weave of textile language’ runs alongside a retrospective at the whitechapel gallery — surveying five decades of his career — and a new publication rooted in the artist’s own collection of historic and contemporary textiles.

‘I don’t know, or the weave of textile language’ resembles a colossal airplane wing

the sculpture is draped in richly-hued red and amber sheets

undulating panels suspend overhead the industrial architecture

the work spans the length of the renowned london gallery site