Contemporary Art for Historic Places

“Contemporary Art for Historic Places” involving The National Trust, English Heritage and Commissions East invited artists to create exciting art inspired by historic sites. Richard Wentworth, Louise K. Wilson and Imogen Stidworthy have been influenced by some of our most outstanding sites – Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, Orford Ness in Suffolk, and De Grey Mausoleum and Dunstable Downs in Bedfordshire. The artists worked closely with property staff, volunteers, visitors and members of neighbouring communities to develop their ideas.

Richard Wentworth reflects on Felbrigg Hall
14 rooms upended
9 July — 30 Oct 2005

Felbrigg Hall, sitting beneath its enormous Norfolk sky, reflects the deliberations and decisions of the four families who have owned it. On his first visit, Richard Wentworth described Felbrigg as “modernity piled upon modernity, waiting for us to add our own”.

Wentworth’s work investigates ordinary objects, reminding us that there is much more to them than meets the eye. At Felbrigg, numerous looking glasses and mirrors recalled how light was once so precious that people learned to play with it before it could escape. More than four centuries elapsed before electricity arrived at Felbrigg in 1952. Mirrors celebrate the pleasure of looking and show us where we cannot go, except in our imagination.

At Felbrigg, Wentworth inserts mirrors — part reflective, part transparent — into both the formal and utilitarian spaces of the house, exploring the intricacies of its interiors and the ways that light plays tricks on us. We may learn to see round corners, past, present and future.

Felbrigg Hall is one of the finest 17 th century country houses in East Anglia .

9 July — 30 October 2005
Felbrigg Hall, Felbrigg, Norwich

Richard Wentworth
Mirror, Mirror , 2003
Galvanised steel, laminated glass and assorted dictionaries
Dimensions Variable
Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery London Richard Wentworth has played a leading role in New British Sculpture since the end of the 70s. 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. 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. These sculptural arrangements and assisted ready-mades play with the juxtaposition of objects that have nothing to do together as well as with a range of material whose use does not belong to art.

Born in Samoa , Richard Wentworth worked for Henry Moore, studied at the Royal College of Arts and was awarded the Mark Rothko Memorial (1974) and the Berlin DAAD Fellowship (1993/94). He taught at Goldsmith’s College from 1971 to 1987, worked in New York and now lives in London .

His works have been shown in various institutions such as the Serpentine Gallery, the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Hayward Gallery, London; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris.