Mike Nelson's Brexit-Era Installation at Tate Britain

Mike Nelson's installation 'The Asset Strippers' opened at Tate Britain's Duveen Gallery ten days before the original March 29 Brexit deadline, which was later postponed. The show runs until October 6, 2019, just before the Halloween deadline. Nelson transformed the neoclassical gallery into a dark, labyrinthine space filled with industrial machinery—lathes, cement mixers, tractors, sewing machines—sourced from liquidation websites. The work critiques Britain's industrial decline and the rise of a service economy, drawing parallels between the Victorian era of industrialists and today's wealthy patrons. Nelson notes that sculptures began to resemble machines and vice versa in the 20th century. The installation evokes nostalgia and criticism of a society that abandoned manufacturing. Nelson warns of a 'new Victorian era of rich patrons, vanity, and inequality.' The title 'The Asset Strippers' refers to the liquidation process, hinting at post-Brexit uncertainties. The work was dismantled after the exhibition.