After a decade spent conquering Hollywood, filmmaker Steve McQueen is returning to his roots with a new retrospective at Tate.
He’s keen for visitors to discover it for themselves, but will say that the show begins with, in which his camera circled the Statue of Liberty in a helicopter during the year it reopened to the public after 9/11. “I think a lot of things in the world right now are at stake, and a symbol of liberty, a symbol of justice, freedom, is very…” he trails off, then recalibrates. “For us, every day right now becomes very unclear. I thought that was a good place to start.”He takes a slug of coffee.
Aspiration is key to the McQueen conundrum. As is struggle – society’s and his own. Of his work ethic as a director, he says, “Well, I ask a lot because, you know, I give a lot.” ’Twas ever thus. Growing up in west London, first on the notorious White City Estate in Shepherd’s Bush, then leafy Hanwell after his mother “rescued” the family by moving them to the suburbs, he loathed school, was dyslexic and wore a patch for a lazy eye for a time.
His career has been an astonishing crusade ever since. Success came early; a film and telly addict, he had his drawings exhibited outside Shepherd’s Bush library when he was five, and following school he went first to Chelsea College of Art and Design, then to Goldsmiths to study fine art. In 1993, he produced his first major visual work,– in which he memorably engaged in a naked wrestling match – to critical acclaim. And by 1999 he had won the Turner Prize.
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