Art Or Child's Play?

A playground of five giant slides has been built in the unlikely setting of the Tate Modern. The longest slide has a run of 55.5 metres (180ft) in length, and drops from the fifth floor of the former London power station. The spiralling slides by conceptual artist Carsten Holler are the seventh in the Unilever series of work commissioned for the giant Turbine Hall. The prospect of being able to swoop down the chute, which Holler describes as a “playground for the body and the brain”, is likely to prove an even bigger draw than some previous favourites in the Unilever Series. They have included a giant red sun in Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project and the giant red trumpet sculpture by Anish Kapoor. Holler, 44, has constructed slides before - one at the Prada headquarters in Milan, where the boss of the fashion empire, Miuccia Prada, slides down it to get from her office to her chauffeur-driven car outside. The Belgian-born artist wants slides to be taken seriously as a means of transport. For the full story - click the title Irish Art