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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle

Bikes, brandy and a giant bin: Tate Britain's artful Christmas trees

Tate christmas trees: Bill Woodrow's 1988 tate christmas tree
Bill Woodrow's 1988 version, the first to be commissioned, presented an ecological view of the world, festooned with cardboard sculptures of maps and a giant globe Photograph: Tate
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Tim Head's contribution in 1989 was more playful, even postmodern: a riot of artificial trees, their form based on an logo taken from the packaging of a commercial cleaning product
Photograph: Tate
Tate christmas trees: 1990 Lisa Milroy Tate christmas tree
Lisa Milroy's tree in 1990 was traditional but with a wry twist, made up from painted images of traditional Christmas decorations Photograph: Tate Photography/Tate
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Evergreen living: Boyd Webb's version (1991) was a tree made up of many trees. It offered a fantastical reflection of the natural world Photograph: Tate
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Craigie Aitchison's Tree the following year featured not only a small gaggle of sheep and a donkey, but decorations featuring birds Photograph: Tate Photography
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Topsy-turvy ... the tree made by Shirazeh Houshiary in 1993 was suspended upside-down and its roots slathered in gold leaf Photograph: Tate
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
The 1994 tree, by Cathy de Monchaux, was 20ft high and swathed in canvas and blue velvet and supported by what the curators described as 'eight amorphous lumps'
Photograph: Christine Boyd/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
The Christmas Tree 1995, designed by Cornelia Parker, was laden with dried fruit, hinting at both a winter store of energy and the potential ingredients for a Christmas pudding. She even managed to organise things so that the scent of brandy lingered in the air Photograph: Tate Photography
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Julian Opie – as you might expect – went pop with his toylike Christmas Forest in 1996
Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Michael Landy – perhaps best-known for destroying everything he owned for a 2001 project – focused on the waste of Christmas in stark fashion Photograph: Tate Photography
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Artist Richard Wilson's Christmas Tree 1998 was unashamedly industrial, using found materials 'to express the order and chaos of Christmas'
Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Mat Collishaw introduced a touch of the macabre in 1999, producing a conventional-looking tree beneath which video played of rats scampering around. They even nibbled their own mince pies Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
The millennial tree, designed by Catherine Yass, had a hint of Star Wars about it: an undecorated, traditional fir was suspended nine feet above the floor of the rotunda, bisected by a thin beam of blue neon running from the top of the dome Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
The 2001 tree, the 14th comissioned by the gallery, is the creation of artist Yinka Shonibare and is made out of 102 cane branches wrapped in shredded batik fabric, a hallmark material for the artist Photograph: KIERAN DOHERTY/REUTERS
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Tracey Emin avoided a tree altogether in 2002, writing a message inviting visitors to make a donation to the Terrence Higgins Trust charity in return for the opportunity to win an original artwork by the artist Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian
Tate christmas trees: Mark Wallinger Tate 2003 tree
Mark Wallinger decorated his 2003 tree with rosaries. Instead of a fir, he chose an aspen – the wood used to make the cross on which Christ was crucified Photograph: Sarah Lee
Tate christmas trees: Richard Wentworth Tate tree
Sculptor Richard Wentworth putting the finishing touches to his tree the following year. He hung broken plates and domestic light bulbs from its branches Photograph: Martin Godwin
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Gary Hume finishes his Christmas tree. The traditional spruce tree is decorated with blackbirds crafted from steel plate which perch on the branches Photograph: Rex Features
Tate christmas trees: Sarah Lucas 2006 Tate tree
Sarah Lucas decorated her tree in typically robust style in 2006. It was a Nordman fir tree with sculptures made from wire and stretched tights, which took the form of baby angels and fairies' genitalia Photograph: Sarah Lee
Tate christmas trees: 2007 Tate tree created by Fiona Banner
The 2007 tree created by Fiona Banner. Foreshadowing her 2010 commission at Tate – two real-life warplanes that fill the gallery – Banner decorated the tree with 122 handmade kit models of all the world's fighter planes. It was called Peace on Earth Photograph: Sarah Lee
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Artists Bob and Roberta Smith created an interactive work called Make Your Own Xmas in 2008
Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
Last year Tacita Dean went for the traditional option with a traditional German Weihnachtsbaum, which had real-life candles
Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Tate Christmas Trees: Tate Britain Christmas Trees
This year Giorgio Sadotti's tree is simple and unadorned with not a bauble in sight – just a massive bullwhip coiled mysteriously around the base. The artist said it would be used for a performance piece on twelfth night, on 5 January 2011, starring someone he described simply as 'Fanny from Marseilles' Photograph: David Levene/Guardian
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