I went to see Shibboleth at the Tate Modern. It apparently,

“Represents borders, the experience of immigrants, the experience of segregation, the experience of racial hatred. It is the experience of a Third World person coming into the heart of Europe. For example, the space which illegal immigrants occupy is a negative space. And so this piece is a negative space.”

Or as someone else said,

“This important work highlights an issue of concern to many people—shoddy builders.”

Either way, I thought it was fun.

• Shibboleth is one of those words that I love. I use it in presentations all the time:

  From Wikipedia:
  Today, in the English language, a shibboleth has also a wider meaning, referring to any “in-crowd” word or phrase that can be used to distinguish members of a group from outsiders - even when not used by a hostile other group. The word is also sometimes used in a broader sense to mean jargon, the proper use of which identifies speakers as members of a particular group or subculture.

  Comment by Frank Jania — February 5, 2008 @ 3:43 am

• That is very learned of you Frank, I didn’t even realise it was a real word. If I’d been in your presentation I may just have thought you were sneezing. I’m going to try and fit it into a conversation today.

  Comment by Darren Shaw — February 5, 2008 @ 8:49 am

• This is great. what a wonderful side by side. The second one is great because of the way the people are aligned on it.

  Comment by smack — February 7, 2008 @ 2:12 am

• Thanks Smack. I found it really hard to take pictures of it, it’s one of those places that looks a lot more dramatic when you’re actually there.

  Comment by Darren Shaw — February 7, 2008 @ 8:22 am