Richard Wentworth plays the Drawing Room Confessions.
THE CAST
RICHARD ……………………………….Richard Wentworth
THE EGOIST …………………………....Dr
Donatien Grau
THE BLIND MAN ……………………....
Helen Marten
TANGO ………………………………....Will Holder
THE DOUBLE DEALER ………………...Tom Sachs
(...) There's nothing like a good puncture. I drilled through my hand once. I think it was a 3 / 16th bit. It's embarrassing to talk about holes and the language of art is always dressing things up: “apertures” and so on. I love being able to see to the other side and I enjoy the physical challenge. When we had counters, I loved getting behind them. A social skill. Crafting a hole is a distinct pleasure, probably known to gunsmiths as much as locksmiths. How to use a half-round file is leagues away from the water jet and the laser or even the mechanics of the drill bit. Fronts have backs. (...)
Drawing Room Confessions is a printed journal named after a parlour game played by Marcel Proust, the
Surrealists and others.
It is made of words and exchanges, with no images. Six different sections (
The Egoist, The Blind Man, Two to Tango, Ekphrasis, Time Line and
La Madeleine) comprise the Rules of the Game, which are the same in each issue. What changes are the players, or interviewers, who open each round of conversation with the featured artist and who come from a wide range of fields.
Richard Wentworth (born 1947 in Samoa, lives and works in London) has played a leading role in
New British Sculpture since the end of the 1970s. His work, encircling the notion of objects and their use as part of our day-to-day experiences, has altered the traditional definition of sculpture as well as photography. By transforming and manipulating industrial and/or found objects into works of art, Wentworth subverts their original function and extends our understanding of them by breaking the conventional system of classification. The sculptural arrangements play with the notion of ready-made and juxtaposition of objects that bear no relation to each other. Whereas in photography, as in the ongoing series
Making Do and Getting By, Wentworth documents the everyday, paying attention to objects, occasional and involuntary geometries as well as uncanny situations that often go unnoticed.
Major solo presentations include Bold Tendencies, Peckham (2015),
Black Maria with Gruppe, Kings Cross (2013); Whitechapel Gallery (2010); 52nd Venice Biennale (2009); Tate Liverpool (2005); Artangel (2002); Bonner Kunstverein (1998); Stedelijk Museum (1994); Serpentine Gallery (1993).
