Tate Liverpool opens a challenging exhibition entitled ‘Telling Tales: Narrative Impulses in Recent Art’ which displays perfect timing. The absence of narrative in contemporary art has not been much questioned this year. Perhaps, 2002 will restore this long-present element of Western art to contemporary currency. We are all suspicious now as to the extent to which the media deprives us of an authentic vision. Telling the truth, in the light of Tracey Emin’s ‘Tales of bed and cabin’, remains suspect. Does one have to tell tales to tell the truth? Tate Liverpool’s inquest helps us along.