bridging the... crack

Doris Salcedo (b. 1958) is an artist from Bogotá, Colombia who focuses her art on overlooked victims and pain. Her commitment to expressing power dynamics and inequality is no surprise when one imagines the violence she must have witnessed growing up in a politically unstable Columbia. The violence decreased in the 1950s and 60s after a political agreement but resumed in 1964 with a civil war and the creation of formal guerrilla groups. Deaths and disappearances were at random, but always the result of someone powerful acting against the powerless.

Her 2007 sculpture, Shibboleth, represents the difficulties of immigration and the pain of segregation. It is a large crack in the floor of the Tate Modern's Turbine Gallery that deepens and widens as it zigzags over the floor. Shibboleth is from a Hebrew word - probably not a coincidence - meaning "any distinguishing practice which is indicative of one's social or regional origin."

The sculpture is a real modification in the floor structure rather than an optical illusion. When the exhibition closed it had to be filled in. However, there is still evidence of the exhibit in the form of a scar on the floor - a metaphor for the psychological effects of violence. Shibboleth actually divided the crowd at the gallery, creating a metaphor for segregation, and also changed the way that you perceive the space. Normally it is seen as a grandiose hall, but will a large crack in the floor no one was looking up. Shibboleth artificially represents pain and separation, and the conscious decision to cross over a boundary.

*Get excited: The Turbine Gallery Unilever series has exhibited some of the most fascinating art in recent years, and will unveil it's next exhibition in October.