That White Rush

Sam Taylor-Wood says she can t believe the silly questions that people keep asking about her latest work, presented in the Ukrainian pavilion. That White Rush is a video of a young woman lying naked with a white swan decomposing on top of her; her toe twitches as the swan s internal liquids spew out. It is made up of two seamlessly integrated films, one taken of the girl over four minutes and one of the swan over four weeks. People actually ask me if the girl lay there for four weeks, says Taylor-Wood. The fact that Taylor-Wood is even in the Ukrainian pavilion has raised some eyebrows. She was chosen by Peter Doroshenko, in charge of the Baltic in Gateshead, who has family links to Ukraine. He argues that the artist s work touches on Ukrainian iconography and sensibilities. The video, Taylor-Wood says, was exhausting to make. Getting hold of a swan proved a nightmare - under a 12th-century law, they are the property of the ruling monarch. I had to get a certificate saying it had died of natural causes. Even then, I had to get permission from the Queen to make the piece.