You know there are some art exhibitions where you just don’t want to believe the hype. Pop Life at the Tate Modern was one of these. On the one hand I was really excited, though I don’t necessarily feel that pop art should be put up on the pedestal it has been, it is definitely very cool. I like the way so much of it fuses comedy and art. The kitsch value it has, the way it embraces those tacky elements of modern culture and makes them into something intellectual. So I had mixed feelings when heading towards the Pop Life exhibition. When I heard that Richard Prince’s photograph of a 10 year old Brooke Shields had been removed, I was worried that the exhibition would have been vetoed to the extent that it would lose it’s edge. But in the end…believe the hype.

When the Tate modern re hung a lot of the pieces a couple of years back, I was really disappointed. Bizarrely, they seemed to have gone for the coffee shop option; crowding lots of paintings into a small space to make it look quirky. Which is fine when you aren’t looking at actual art, but not in a gallery. This exhibition restored my faith, it really captured the idea of pop art. Whole rooms were given over to a concept, the space was wonderfully manipulated so you felt like you were in a completely new gallery.

You enter and are faced with the iconic image of Jeff Koons bunny, and a giant Manga character squirting milk from her balloon shaped breasts. To be fair that is a pretty strong start. From there you are led through, Andy Warhols iconic images, synonymous with the pop art movement. As you make your way through the maze of rooms there are more wonderful things to encounter. I think my favourite, was the room entirely covered in gold foil with Leo Castelli’s eighties hip hop and black power posters, viewed to a soundtrack of old skool hip hop. To be honest I could have stayed in that room, danced about like a idiot and been quite content. But every room had it’s own drawn and novelty.

Every so often there were side rooms with the doors closed off, given over to the more pornographic side of pop art. The Jeff Koons room was hysterical, in the centre you are faced with a bigger than life size sculpture of Jeff and his porn star wife in mid mount . This is surrounded by huge images of Jeff and his lady from the Made in Heaven series, the most gloriously cheesy porn images I have ever seen. These high colour, high gloss photos tower over the viewer as you move around the centre piece. Jeff Koons pieces turn himself into the commodity, explicitly so as he places himself in the context of pornography.

You then go through to another room bedecked with iconic Keith Haring graffiti and blasting out yet more 80’s tunes, creating a mock up of the Haring’s Pop Shop. Here faced with old t shirt designs and products, the relationship between pop art and mass culture is evident. In fact there is also a shop within the exhibition space selling recreations of the artists famous t-shirts. It’s hard to tell whether this is an ironic nod, or a commercial venture. But I have a feeling true pop artists would probably approve of both.

The whole exhibition culminates in the embodiment of commoditisation and art, the final room is filled with the works of Takashi Murakami. These pieces are crammed with images of modern culture. From a perspex box diamonds embedded in the white gold representation of a Pepsi can wink at the viewer. While the soundtrack of Turning Japanese plays from the lcd screen where a costumed Kirsten Dunst dances through the streets of Tokyo.

All and all this exhibition is high colour and high sound. Half the rooms seem to have their own soundtrack, or maybe that was just the memory I took from it. I loved the use of music, so many galleries are quiet spaces , not loud and boisterous but that’s exactly what pop art was and is. It’s unapologetic and brash.
The exhibition get’s busy, very busy, which fits with the mood of the space but can get frustrating.  If you can go into the exhibition on the opposite side of the floor; Pure Beauty. In comparison it offers you a quiet, curious and intriguing collection as well as the opportunity to learn the rules to the choose a carrot  game. It’s a nice contrast from the in your face quality of Pop Life.

You can find out more about both exhibitions on the Tate Modern website.