The lovers, carved passionately embracing a century ago by Rodin, have been bound even more closely together with a mile of string, by the contemporary artist Cornelia Parker.

Parker, who recently attracted the wrath of Britain's brass band fraternity over a piece made for the Victoria and Albert Museum from crushed musical instruments, is one of the stars of Days Like These, the triennial exhibition of British contemporary art which opens today at Tate Britain.

She intends her binding of the lovers - done with careful guidance from the Tate's curators, to avoid any possibility of damage to one of the most famous and popular works in the Tate collection - to symbolise the complexity of desire, suffocating as well as passionate.

It also contains an art historical reference: in 1942 the artist Marcel Duchamp used a mile of string to criss-cross a gallery space, so that visitors had to pick their way through his cobweb to gain access to a major exhibition of surrealist art.

Days Like These, Tate Triennial Exhibition of Contemporary British Art 2003, Tate Britain, until May 26.

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