Richard Wentworth

Looking at Richar Wentworth’s work for me was similar to looking at the work of Liliana Porter, in that, I wanted to gain a better understanding of what it means to use the ‘ready made’ Wentworth attempts to draw objects out, uncovering their various selves and rerouting what and how they signify. His activities go beyond producing discrete objects or installations…He resists the temptation to pump up the size of his work or to substitute permanent materials for challengingly conceptual ones.

I’ll admit I cannot fully understand all that Wentworth has to say regarding his use of every day objects that he in some way manipulates and photographs. I think is work takes a certain type of contemplation, a space in which you have to let go of certain presumptions. Everything is so methodically planned out. In a BBC Interview he speaks of a piece with the use of a ping pong table and dinner plates, his observations on how we react to such situations as broken plates placed back together and stacked on the table, ready to be re-used for their original purpose, is outstanding. He says that “’as a general rule we’re anxious about eating off something that’s been mended, but then there are other things in our lives that we mend because we’d hate to lose them.” “The fact that they’re on a ping pong table, I’ve had dinner off ping pong tables, there’s nothing odd about that if you’ve got enough people coming to dinner why not!” “But it makes it a little bit tense because you have that feeling of opposition…”

In feeling a bit overwhelmed in trying to break down Wentworth’s observations, he even states himself that he is continually investigating the miracle of selecting what we look at–ideas about prior knowledge and how drenched we are in it and how un-innocent.” I think investigating Wentworth’s work for me personally was trying to identify with it in some way, it seemed like such a different use of the ready made and upon investigating the work and reading his interviews I find it even a bit more confusing, but this is not a bad thing, I learned that objects are not to be taken for granted, we as walkers and lookers about analyze everything, whether we realize it or not, what Wentworth does is further examines the moments of contemplation on an object that the average individual would only speak of inside the subconscious. He pulls that out and manipulates it further, pushes it to its limit and places out for the world to see.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. Conversations on Sculpture. Hamilton, N. J.: Isc, 2007. Print.

"Richard Wentworth @ Potteries Museum." Interview by Lisa Dawson. Richard Wentworth @ Potteries Museum. BBC. Stoke and Staffordshire, UK, Apr. 2006. Radio.