Thursday, May 13, 2010

Richard Wilson

20:50, 1987

In 20:50, one person at a time is invited to walk along the walkway out into the room. Because of the proportions and symmetry of the space, it is at first unclear that there is anything unusual about the room at all. You then realise that the ceiling and the floor are exact mirror images, that the walls are vertically symmetrical, and that the clouds outside the windows are drifting past in doubles. There is a moment when you realise that you are standing waist-deep in a room that is full of thick, perfect, reflective liquid. Suddenly, the room has a vertiginous quality, dizzying and strange. The room is filled half-way with used sump oil. The reflective surface spreads right up to the edges of the walkway, where the still oil brims on the lip of a space that before looked like a drop to the floor.
Wilson does incredible things with space and the perception of space, and instigates a playful and resonant meshing of architecture and art.

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