First he was a Turner prize-winning artist, then a Oscar-winning film director. Now, with a knighthood and a Tate Modern retrospective, he explains why he’s still angry – and still searching
Back in 2001, seven years before he directed his first feature film, Steve McQueen made 7th Nov, an installation that features in his forthcoming Tate Modern retrospective. Visually, it is his most minimalist work: a projection of a single still photograph of the crown of a reclining man’s head, which is bisected by a long, curving scar. And yet it possesses a visceral charge that unsettles more than any other piece that will be in the exhibition. That power rests in the accompanying monologue in which McQueen’s cousin, Marcus, recounts in brutally graphic detail the terrible events of the day he accidentally shot and killed his own brother.
7th Nov can be seen in retrospect as a signal of what was to come as McQueen made the transition from artist to director, creating acclaimed feature films that merged formal rigour with a narrative style that is often unflinching in its depiction of human endurance.