Dimensions: displayed:600x605x35mm weight:2kg
Copyright: © Richard Wentworth | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Richard Wentworth’s "Dip" presents us with a galvanized steel oval punctured by a sleek opening, cradling what appears to be a humble cough drop. Editor: Initially, it strikes me as cold, almost industrial, yet there's a strange warmth emanating from that amber lozenge. Curator: Wentworth's work often plays with the everyday, elevating mundane objects into statements about use and value within our culture. Editor: The contrast is stark—the hard, impersonal steel against the small, comforting drop. It's a study in textures and tones; the cool grays play against the warm brown. Curator: Yes, and by placing it within the context of an art gallery, Wentworth challenges our understanding of worth. Is he critiquing our consumerist society? Editor: Perhaps, or simply highlighting the unexpected beauty in the commonplace. The composition draws the eye to this tiny, amber intrusion. Curator: Ultimately, "Dip" invites reflection on the objects that surround and, in some ways, define us. Editor: It's surprisingly poignant, this melding of hard and soft, industrial and intimate.
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Dip is a wall-hung sculpture that comprises a single sheet of galvanised steel which has been cut into an ellipse and pierced by three differently shaped holes. The work hangs from a single clout nail, which is visible through the small, circular hole at the top of the steel sheet. Two other elliptical holes penetrate the work, one of which is plugged by an old-fashioned bar of soap. The title employs the kind of linguistic ambiguity that has delighted Wentworth throughout his career, and demonstrates his longstanding preference for what he refers to as ‘short, sharp, single-syllable, Anglo Saxon’ words (quoted in unpublished correspondence with a Tate curator, April 2003). The word ‘dip’ is both noun and verb, referring to the idea of ‘taking a dip’ or dipping into something, suggesting that the steel disc could resemble a puddle or a small pool. This watery theme is reinforced by the presence of the soap.
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