The prestigious Unilever Series features Tacita Dean at Tate Modern

Tacita Dean is the new artist to create a special commission for Tate Modern's much-fancied Turbine Hall as part of the prestigious Unilever Series.

A talented British artist now located in Berlin is best known for her usage of film. They serve as portraits or deft depictions rather than merely conventional cinematic narrations, skillfully capturing fleeting natural light or some subtle shifts in movement. The artist’s static camera positions and long takes as if, unfold events unhurriedly. Other works try to re-construct events from memory like an infamous thwarted effort to circumnavigate the world.

Considered one of the best living artists of her generation in Britain, she avoids media attention and does not always make headlines. In that sense, she has maintained a low-profile. However, the prolific nature and the quality of her oeuvre have won her critical acclaim. Revealing her inspiration and art processes, she has stated: “The heart of my process is the editing. It's almost as if I court chaos in the filming because I know I have this period later when it will just be me and it."

Her film works usually follow a very distinctive aesthetic, keeping in line with the tradition of early 20th century hand-held-camera style of 16mm pictures. They tend to take the form of portraits, highly personal in nature, of figures she admires. They are akin to poetic and open-ended documentaries, or passionate painterly meditations on light.

Tacita Dean’s 11-minute silent work acts as a tribute to the ‘magical art’ of analogue film now under threat from the digital technology. Her work appears like a filmstrip with sprocket holes. It’s comprised of images of the sea, trees, flowers, an eye and a grasshopper, projected on to the back of a quaint and darkened Turbine Hall.

Her new commission designed to respond to the Turbine Hall’s architecture leaves the viewer spellbound. The prestigious Unilever Series featuring Tacita Dean runs at Tate Modern from 11 October 2011 until 11 March, next year.