Ed Atkins

Tate Britain presents a major retrospective of British artist Ed Atkins, running from 2 April to 25 August 2025. The exhibition features over 60 works across eight rooms, including video installations, embroideries, and sculptural pieces such as 'Death Mask II: The Scent' (2010), 'Hisser' (2015), 'Old Food' (2017-18), and 'Pianowork 2' (2023). Atkins, known for exploring existential dread through digital and handmade media, wrote the exhibition labels himself—a device curator Polly Staple says questions the authority of museum text. The show traces Atkins' evolution alongside advancing technology, from early post-art-school works to CGI self-portraits and installations incorporating costumes from Berlin's Deutsche Oper.

This retrospective matters because it positions Ed Atkins as a leading voice in contemporary art grappling with the emotional and philosophical implications of digital life. By blending CGI, video, sound, and text, Atkins confronts themes of grief, memory, artificial intelligence, and the erosion of human experience—resonating with current anxieties about technology's role in society. The exhibition also highlights Tate Britain's willingness to experiment with curatorial voice, letting the artist's own writing guide interpretation, which may influence how museums approach label authorship in the future.