London's Tate Modern gallery, always at the cutting edge of the art world, has done a major "rehang" involving 400 items, many of them new acquisitions.

* London's Tate Modern gallery, always at the cutting edge of the art world, has done a major "rehang" involving 400 items, many of them new acquisitions. Among these latter is Martin Creed's Work No. 401. Mr. Creed is a brilliant star in the world of avant-garde art, having won the prestigious Turner Prize in 2001 for his masterpiece The Lights Going On and Off, which consisted of a room empty except for two lights that were, yes, going on and off. With Work No. 401 Creed has branched out in an exciting new direction. The piece is a nine-minute recording, played repeatedly on a loop, of Mr. Creed making flatulent sounds into a microphone. It can be heard throughout Tate Modern's new Material Gestures wing, which also contains works by Claude Monet and Mark Rothko. Just how Mr. Creed generated the sounds is unclear. The New York Post seems to think they are perfectly authentic, though the London Times refers to "blowing raspberries," which is Brit-speak for a simulation done with the mouth. For all we can tell, Mr. Creed may have employed his armpit in the process, schoolboy-style. Let's look for a silver lining here: London gallery patrons who are themselves afflicted with flatulence now have a place where they can let down their guard.