Hillbilly Heaven: Mike Nelson's Coral Reef

From The Cosmic Legend
of the Uroboros Serpent, 2001

Today I saw a downright spooky art installation at Tate Britain; I understand that it's been in existence for a while (since 2000), but it may be worth a mention anyhow. The work in question is Mike Nelson's 'The Coral Reef', which won the artist a Turner prize nomination in 2001.

Now, I'm not generally a fan of this kind of thing, but I quite enjoyed wandering around this labyrinth of stinky cramped corridors and crusty doors; for those who haven't seen it, it's sort of like being in a movie - 'No Country for Old Men' perhaps, or the remake of 'The Hills Have Eyes'. You go through the first door, thinking that you've accidentally walked into a fire exit - and you find a strange little smelly room with a 1960s tv, bar stools and old, mangy magazines. Basically you continue in this way, finding in each room something that will give you the heebie jeebies: a grubby clown mask or stained sleeping bag. My favourite was a Mexian-themed parlour, equipped with an image of sombrero-wearing men and a large cactus.

It's obviously more effective to enter the site on your own - the silence, flickering lighting and damp, musty stench make it difficult not to experience some level of trepidation on thrusting open each creaking door. It's also horribly difficult to remember where the exit is; I thought fleetingly how unpleasant it would be to have a powerful panic attack in one of the many corridors.

I'm probably making it sound 'scary', and it isn't really. Just mildly unnerving. For anyone wanting to check it out, it will remain in Tate Britain until the end of 2011.