We spent the day at the Tate Britain, first at the Millais exhibition which I really enjoyed. There were seven galleries of his works, basically one for each period in his very successful career, a career that earned him 30,000 pounds a year in the second half of the nineteenth century (good thing, too, because he had eight children). They had a drawing he did when he was nine years old that was pretty amazing. The exhibition included probably all of his famous paintings, including Ophelia, Bubbles, and Cherry Ripe. One of my favorites was The Order of Release. You could just feel the weight of the sleeping baby in the mother's arms.

We then went into an exhibition that couldn't have been more different, Turner Prize: A Retrospective. The Turner Prize has been awarded since 1984, as a way to draw greater public attention to contemporary art. They had works by the winners each year since its inception, as well as wall text that included those artists who made the shortlist each year. (They will be announcing the winner for 2007 next week at the Tate Liverpool.) Pieces included:

1. 1995 winner Damien Hirst's Mother and Child, Divided 1993-2007, which was a mother cow and baby calf, both sliced cleanly down the middle lengthwise, with each piece in its own separate clear container filled with formaldehyde. You could walk between the two sides of the mother and examine her insides if you were so moved. The point? To use shock as a way to explore mortality, to make aspects of life and death visible.
   
2. 1997 winner Gillian Wearing's 60 minute silence 1996, which is a 60-minute video of 26 police officers lined up in three rows as if they were having a formal photo taken. They were to stand as still as possible for one hour and you could see them getting more fidgety as the minutes passed. I was too, but I was determined to see how it ended, and I sat through probably the last thirty-five minutes of it. It was a very exciting finish so if you think you might want to see it and don't want to spoil the surprise, then don't read the following--several of them removed their hats, some got up, and one man gave a loud yell of relief that it was over. The point? The raising of prevalent questions about control and surveillance.
   
3. 2001 winner Martin Creed's Work No. 227: Lights going on and off 2000, which was one gallery in which bright lights from the ceiling would go on and off at five-second intervals. The point? To challenge traditional ideas of display and to invite visitors to reevaluate rules and conventions.
   

I think you get a sense without my having to describe every piece. If you'd like to know more, you can always go to the Tate's website.

Tonight we watched the second of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers. This is all the more incredible given the fact that Gord and I rarely sit down and watch television or a movie together, and probably never two nights in a row. We're going to try for three. Can we do it? Find out tomorrow.