Kid's Stuff

Richard Wentworth's Siamese tubs with inserted mirror conjure up images of a dish sliding into a sink of water, a figure sinking into a hot bath, a moon's reflection in a lake. The tubs and mirror form what G. K. Chesterton called a co-incidence - an unexpected, unlikely alignment, full of grace and truth. For all the modesty of materials, and humility of original function, Wentworth's altered objects often attain a luxurious, shining quality, but somehow still remain their simple selves - think of a teaspoon bent by refraction in a glass of water, as everyday as you get, yet still a minor miracle. Sometimes Wentworth plays the conjuror with his innocent-looking props, turning the tables on us as we watch. After his sly hocus-pocus, things overlooked by habit suddenly become strange attractors. Wentworth makes objects that have a mind of their own - they are intelligent objects; they look back at us but they don't need us. He talks of the way the world yaps at us for attention, but with their self-assured demeanour and secrecy, his own objects resemble cats more than dogs. Wentworth contributed to the 1980s flourishing of British sculpture along with other object-makers such as Richard Deacon, Tony Cragg, and Bill Woodrow. Familiar with the lessons of Cubism, Surrealism and Marcel Duchamp, these artists produce sculpture which is materially inventive, imaginatively rich and conceptually shrewd. (from The Guide, 2001)

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