I first saw Richard Wilson’s installation' 20:50' at the Saatchi Gallery in Boundary Road nearly 20 years ago. I have since tried to explain it but it defies belief when you tell people that it is possible to walk waist-deep into a reservoir of recycled sump oil. It sounds horrible but these pictures show how the trick is performed and how sublime is the effect of the calm mirrored surface.
It reflects and doubles the architectural features.
The sides of the metal walkway come virtually to meet the glassy surface and whilst it is safe, the magic of the experience is menaced by the idea that you are within a centimetre or two of being engulfed by 8,000 litres of unpleasant black engine oil. I know it really is oil because one of the youngsters I took unwittingly dipped the strap of his rucksack into it.
The installation has now opened in its new home at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea here.
Totally worth experiencing. My son Will told me today that it made a huge impression on him all those years ago.
Photographs 1-4: Linda Niland; 5: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
courtesy of The Guardian's marvellous website
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Hee hee - I was one of those youngsters! It made a huge impression on me too, I remember walking in and not actually knowing what I was supposed to be looking at, it just looked like a walkway, it was only when I was told there was oil there that I could see. It is an AMAZING installation and I am going to try my hardest to go and see it again. Thanks for the memories!
ReplyDeleteI was thankful the kids in my charge behaved so well. I have often wondered what mayhem can be caused in there. It does need to be serene.
ReplyDeleteRemarkable to think of a single human mind
ReplyDeleteconjuring such magic.
Jjj
That's the minimalist experience in essence. Apparent simplicity, but heavy on the logistics.
ReplyDeleteI briefly worked at a satellite automotive/ defense industry contractor plant while I was in college, and the floor was occupied by giant (some of them the size of barns)machine tools fed constantly with cutting oil. The oil vaporized and went everywhere. You began breathing it as soon as you walked in. It accumulated on your clothing, your hair, and even the packets of crackers and cookies in the breakroom vending machines tasted of it.
I was stationed at a heat treatment furnace that tempered transmission linkage parts to a specific hardness. When the crates of linkages reached a given temperature, a large articulated door would roll upward and flames would roll out as the crates rattled out on the conveyor. I had a few seconds to test a few of them with a set of calipers. I think that's where I left most of my eyebrows. At the time, the work environment reminded me of this, another minimalist piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzYu88jIDYs
But I think Wilson's installation has more poetic brevity. Utterly unlike this comment.
Fascinating and a bit eerie. That big valve along the walking path makes me a bit nervous too.
ReplyDeletestudioJudith.. Yes, I wish I had thought of it.
ReplyDeleteBut as rurritable says, heavy on logistics. You're an artist.. that was your oil story. Terrifies the life out of me. As I kid I had to walk to school past a car repair shop which to me was just a black greasy hole, the jaws of hell. Perhaps it was because aged 5 my sister ran me over and the experience of lying under the car has made me almost phobic of heavy machinery since! I have forgiven her, by the way. Will check your your youtube reference. Thanks.
la, I totally agree about that big red valve! I don't think the artist intends you to feel totally comfortable?
ReplyDeleteI get light-headed and dizzy just looking at the photographs. And that's meant in a good way.
ReplyDeleteAAL, you'd think the installation would have a dizzying garage smell but
ReplyDeleteit must have worn off by the time I got there. Thank god or I would have been very unnerved.
I love this...I'm a bit disapointed the smell had worn off though and also I'm a bit of a hooligan so I'd feel the need to play with the perfect calm a little...stir it up just to watch the ripples.
ReplyDeletewhat a slick spill. I would love to see it.
ReplyDeletepve
My psychopathologies being what they are, I really wanted to DIVE into the stuff when I saw it (at the same Saatchi gallery about 15 years ago).
ReplyDeleteHad a similar feeling at the Kapooh show recently. Needed to scrape up some of that red gunk and smear it in my hair.
Prozac, does your shrink explain to you that boys will be boys?
ReplyDeleteNo.
ReplyDeleteBut we did get about six months of naval-gazing deconstruction out of my Kapooh proclivities...
Somebody please deconstruct the fact that I was too frightened of my disgust to go and see the Kapooh gunk installation.
ReplyDeleteIt is an illusion though. There's only a small amount of oil, enough to cover the surface...
ReplyDeleteOh no, Anon, don't say that! But that's interesting anyway. Thank you.
ReplyDelete