Richard Wentworth

If London Looked in the Mirror
Zone 1 Tube Stations From September 2005

“When is a Londoner not a Londoner? When does a long-term visitor become a Londoner? What makes people into Londoners? What must you know to be a Londoner? How long does it last?” Richard Wentworth, June 2005

Platform for Art is delighted to announce a new commission by Richard Wentworth made to coincide with this year’s Frieze Art Fair. This commission is an artist’s multiple which will be available free from the Frieze Art Fair and all Zone 1 Tube Stations from September 18-October 30. It is the third successive year that Platform for Art has collaborated with Frieze Projects, and continues Platform for Art’s commitment to commissioning work by established artists and distributing multiples to the broadest possible audience within the context of London’s transport infrastructure.

Wentworth has long been fascinated by the growth and development of London, and the various ways its inhabitants navigate and negotiate its urban geography. In 2002 he was commissioned by Artangel to produce a major project in a disused plumbing supplies warehouse in Kings Cross, entitled An Area of Outstanding Unnatural Beauty.

If London Looked in the Mirror prompts a consideration of how London has evolved and proposes a scheme for reacquainting Londoners with their city. The naming (and renaming) of London’s parts has a contradictory history. Through a rearrangement of place-names on a rethought map of the city and a proposal for twinning its many boroughs, destinations, villages and landmarks, Wentworth’s proposal aims to ensure that London’s inhabitants become thoroughly familiarized with previously unknown places.

To accompany If London Looked in the Mirror, Richard Wentworth has been commissioned to devise a unique tour originating at Frieze Art Fair, winding its way out into the local environs of Regents Park and beyond. Wentworth will offer commentary on the immediate surroundings and will expand on ideas proposed in If London Looked in the Mirror. Friday 21, Saturday 22 & Sunday 23 October at 2pm.

Notes for Editors:

• Richard Wentworth (b. 1947) is a London-based artist who emerged in the late 1970s amongst a group of British sculptors who focussed on the everyday object. He radically changes the perception of everyday objects with little effort, and his work reveals an acute sense of intelligence allied with an irreverent and mischievous sense of humour. He has had an enormous influence upon a whole generation of artists, and his work has been shown in many galleries and museums in the UK and abroad. The first major retrospective of his work took place earlier this year at Tate Liverpool (21 January-24 April 2005). Wentworth has been included in such seminal shows as ‘Material Culture: The Object in British Art of the 1980s and 1990s’, Hayward Gallery, London (1997) and ‘Blast to Freeze, British Art in the 20th century’, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2002).
• This is the third collaboration between Platform for Art and Frieze Projects to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair, now a key cultural event which presents the work of thousands of international artists in London. Artists involved in previous collaborations were Liam Gillick (2003) and Emma Kay (2004).
• This year’s Frieze Art Fair will take place in Regent’s Park, London, from 21-24 October 2005.
• People will be able to see – and buy work from – more than 1,000 of the world’s leading artists. A ticket to the Frieze Art Fair also gives visitors access to Frieze Projects, a series of commissioned pieces of public art, and a programme of discussions and lectures called Frieze Talks. For more information, visit www.seetickets.com or call 0870 890 0514.

Platform for Art is the public art programme for London Underground

For more information on Platform for Art, its exhibitions and projects, please tel: 020 7918 4625 or email: art@tube.tfl.gov.uk or visit www.tfl.gov.uk/pfa

© 2005 Richard Wentworth

© 2005 Richard Wentworth

Comments

• Comment on this exhibition