Dimensions: object: 860 x 425 x 495 mm
Copyright: © Richard Wentworth | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Richard Wentworth's 'Siege,' a sculpture, though it presents as a chair, from an undetermined date. The juxtaposition of the wood and metal is quite striking, and then there are those two suspended black orbs beneath the seat! What's your take? Curator: Well, it’s a bit cheeky, isn't it? The title 'Siege' hints at being surrounded, under pressure, and the dangling spheres certainly add to the tension. It's domestic, yet undeniably unnerving. Does it make you question what a chair *should* be? Editor: Absolutely. It's unsettlingly familiar, yet so absurd. I guess I see it as a playful disruption of the everyday. Curator: Precisely! And that's where the magic lies – turning the mundane on its head and making us see the world anew. Food for thought, indeed.
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Wentworth’s sculptures often utilise common objects and easily available materials, combined in extraordinary ways. ‘Like a gaucho’s bolas, one chair ensnares the other’, the artist has said of this work. The title relates to the French word for seat (siège) as well as the English idea of being under siege. Wentworth has explained that the sculpture stemmed from ‘a very different moment in gender politics, and it is now more common to discuss how pathetic men are. I used to think most of the time that I feel pathetic – and why shouldn’t one make work about that?’ Gallery label, February 2011
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