Steve McQueen's Giardini

Moira at Dog Art Today blogs about British artist Steve McQueen's film, Giardini, at the Venice Biennale.

McQueen shot what he found – there is a 92-year-old woman who trundles her shopping trolley through the gardens to feed the cats each day, and a spectacular moment when the sun is blotted out by one of the giant cruise ships that dwarfs the city "like a giant whale", he said. We hear the sounds of the park – the chanting from the nearby football ground, for instance. "It was like a wonderful male choir," said McQueen, "monumental, wonderful. And then there were always the church bells, this operatic thing. More

The most arresting characters are the dogs who appear like a leitmotif through the work. 'They are racing greyhounds that would otherwise be shot but are looked after by a charity,'' said McQueen. The point is that they ought to be dead – and are thus a kind of ghostly presence, he added.