- Venue
- Saatchi Gallery
- Location
- United Kingdom
Richard Wilson 20: 50, Installation at the Saatchi Gallery, London.
Room 13 of the Saatchi Gallery in London is home to Richard Wilson’s installation 20: 50. It arrived at the Saatchi empire in 2003 and is a signature piece of contemporary British art after first been made over 20 years ago.
The room holds an ambiguous atmosphere followed by a momentary pause of realisation which sweeps through the viewer as we come to recognise what Wilson has cleverly created. An installation which turns out to be neither mirror reflection nor a view of another gallery, but an impenetrable, highly reflective sea of used sump oil. (You then figure out why your nose took a sudden dislike to the room). With a steel walkway enabling the viewer to become at waist level with the black recycled oil, 20:50 was something Charles Saatchi just had to have.
Wilsons work focuses on architectural themes of volume, space and illusionary perception which come from an interest of engineering and construction. As seen in Turning the Place Over (2008) situated in Liverpool, Wilson displays an oval exterior of an unused building being mechanically rotated revealing the interior to Liverpool’s residents.
Whilst been described as an installation artist and grouped with the minimalist movement, Wilsons creations are something completely original and unique, hence 20: 50‘s permanent location at the Saatchi Gallery. The perfect mathematical capacity distorts perception of space and constantly amazes its viewer, who understandably wants to go back and test its illusionary magic.
