Sculptor Richard Wilson at Drewsteignton for Dartmoor Arts talk

By PRSD, on Friday, January 9, 2009

posted by Cptn

We don’t believe it! Richard Wilson (the double Turner prize nominee) will be popping down to the North Dartmoor haven of the arts, Drewsteignton, to give an illustrated talk (with questions and what not) at the Drewe Arms on Wednesday, January 14 at 8pm. You could go along and ask him how he managed to create Turning the Place Over (see above) for the Liverpool Biennial with nothing but a paper clip and two rubber bands.

The talk is part of the programme of events organised by Dartmoor Arts, which along with attracting the top names in the arts world to Devon, also manages to engage top names in its summer events and art courses.

Richard’s Turning the Place Over was described by the Liverpool Biennial organisers as “most radical intervention into architecture to date” (according to Wikipedia anyway). The eight-metre disc revolves inside out in the building itself.

But it was the nominations for the Tuner prize that established Richard as a mess-with-your-perception type heavyweight artsit. In 1988 he was nominated for 20:50, which quickly became a key piece for the Saatchi Gallery – takes the viewer into a room half-filled with sump oil. ‘The experience is physically disorientating and visually breathtaking,’ according to the Tate website. And he followed it up the next year with a nomination again, this time for Sea Level, another oily experience.

Of course, there are other works that need to be considered. Of the site-specific sculptures there’s the One Year at a Time, which filled the south tower of the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (possibly one of the inspirations that fuelled the emergence of the Baltic Centre) and he’s a musician, having been in the ’80′s combo the Bow Gamelan Ensemble.

Dartmoor Arts Presents Richard Wilson at the Long Room, Drewe Arms, Drewsteignton, on Wednesday January 14 at 8pm. Tickets £6 or £4.