Asleep at the Tate Modern

As part of its "Long Weekend" festivities on 25-28 May, the Tate Modern is screening an 18-hour version of Andy Warhol's celluloid classic, Sleep, accompanied by Erik Satie’s 1893 repetitive piano piece, Vexations. Of course, when Andy screened it in 1964 it was less than a third that long and accompanied by a transistor radio tuned to a pop station. But the Tate has time to kill and tickets to sell and is projecting it in a loop from Sunday night to Monday afternoon. So is this new version still a Warhol?

Even if Warhol made his reputation on blurring the line between originals and copies, museums have a certain responsibility to historical accuracy. We're all for screenings of Warhol's classics-- sadly, they've always been more talked about than seen-- but the Tate Modern isn't doing the film any favors. The Tate claims that Vexations "inspired" the film. That's debatable. True, Warhol edited Sleep not long after he heard John Cage's production of Satie's piece, but he had shot it well beforehand. Yes, the film is full of repeated shots, but that repetition is also due to a lack of footage necessary to make the film as long as Warhol intended.

While Warhol was notorious for making films with varying lengths, random reels or loose ends, Sleep's history is relatively clear-cut. He made it 5 1/2 hours-- not 2 hours or 18 hours-- and it's a choice worth respecting. Then why wouldn't the Tate Modern respect those parameters and have 3 or 4 screenings throughout the night instead of a loop? Or add a screening in the auditorium, with the radio humming, for those who want to see it as it was first shown? Probably because such historical details endanger the mellow ambiance the Tate staff is aiming for, exposing the audience to the tedium and frustration that Warhol had in mind.