Effra Quay & Isle of Effra (Albert Embankment), Tideway, London
Effra Quay & Isle of Effra (Albert Embankment), Tideway, London: Richard Wentworth
Year
2025
Client
fereday pollard for Tideway
Artist
Richard Wentworth
Service
Commission Management
Location
Albert Embankment, London SE1
Permanent artworks for Effra Quay & Isle of Effra (Albert Embankment)
Richard Wentworth has been commissioned by Tideway to create an artwork for these two new areas of public realm within the River Thames.
At Effra Quay Richard Wentworth has produced a collection of cast bronze seating, mirroring the ceramic sanitaryware, formerly manufactured at the historically nearby Royal Doulton factory in Lambeth. The artist has remarked that the ceramic toilet is perhaps the leading invention of the 19th century, a kind of utilitarian ‘furniture’ which we have come to take for granted.
Borrowing from the language of ceramic production, Wentworth has worked with Lockbund Foundry to produce these “adjusted cast bronze replicants. Please take a seat.”
For the Isle of Effra, two panels are open letters to passers-by. One vertical, one horizontal, one ‘positive’, one ‘negative’, they derive from Richard Wentworth’s interest in the dropped notes which are often found blowing along London’s streets. For Wentworth, one of the pleasures of being a Londoner is the chance encounter that leads to a conversation.
“To anyone arriving at the riverside, the sheer volumne of water, its movement to and fro and the fall of light on its surface may provide a state of wonder - or possibly an unexpected conversation.”
The artist worked closely with Lockbund Sculpture Foundry to produce the artworks, working with Studio Sutherl& for the panel typography and design. Contractor FLO with subcontractor Sorba.
Effra Quay and Isle of Effra are open to the public and the seating artworks have been installed along with one of the bronze panels. The second will be installed shortly.
Sir Henry Doulton developed the company Royal Doulton based on the profits made from selling the salt glazed sewer pipes to Sir Joseph Bazalgette. More about the history of the company can be found here. Doulton is buried in an elaborate mausoleum in West Norwood Cemetery, which is referenced in one poem by Dorothea Smartt on the ventilation columns on the site.
Thanks for the use of the Royal Doulton logo on the sculptures are due to Fiskars Group, who very kindly agreed to this. The form of the sculptures is loosely based on that of the 1930's Doulton of Lambeth wash down closet. A 3D scan of this was taken from a toilet held in the collection at Crossness Pumping Station, and thanks are due to the Crossness Engines Trust who made this possible.
Richard Wentworth lives and works in London. He has played a leading role in New British Sculpture since the end of the 1970s. 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 as well as photography. 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. The sculptural arrangements play with the notion of ready-made and juxtaposition of objects that bear no relation to each other. Whereas in photography, as in the ongoing series Making Do and Getting By, Wentworth documents the everyday, paying attention to objects, occasional and involuntary geometries as well as uncanny situations that often go unnoticed.
“I don’t do projects. I just work and my work takes all sorts of different forms.”
Recent exhibitions have been held at Prats Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona (2024); Prats Nogueras Blanchard, Girona (2024); NoguerasBlanchard, Madrid (2019); SWG3, Glasgow with Victoria Miguel (2018); NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona (2017); Galerie Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, France (2017); Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN, USA (2015); Bold Tendencies, Peckham, London (2015); 'Black Maria' (in collaboration with Gruppe), Kings Cross, London (2013); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010). His work is held in a number of national and international public and private collections.
For more information see: Richard Wentworth
For more information on the project see:
www.tideway.london