Originally created in 1987, it was permanently installed at the Saatchi Gallery at Boundary Road in 1991 and County Hall in 2003, each time responding to the architectural context of its surroundings, providing a different impression in each location.
Wilson's “20:50” fills the whole space to waist height with a reservoir of recycled engine oil (the material after which the work takes its name). A walkway invites visitors directly though the work, so that they are surrounded by the reflective horizontal plane of sump oil from all sides. Inspired by the idea of a Tardislike space, the mirroring surface of this viscous black mass fills the gallery yet doubles it in appearance, playing back to the architecture of the room by reflecting it upside down.
"If I was going to have to call it something I suppose it would be a conceptual installation. ‘20:50’ is essentially an idea. It can be applied to any internal space and in each space it will be radically different in appearance - because it will reflect that specific space and adapt to that space's physical parameters." -Richard Wilson.
Richard Wilson is one of Britain's most renowned sculptors. Working from his interest in architecture, engineering and monumental feats, Wilson uses the individual information of each place for which his work is intended to create new spatial experiences.
Wilson has exhibited widely nationally and internationally for over thirty years and has made major museum exhibitions and public works in countries as diverse as Japan, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Australia and numerous countries throughout Europe. Wilson has represented Britain in the Sydney, Sao Paulo, Venice Biennials and Yokohama Triennial and was nominated for the Turner Prize on two occasions.. His latest architectural intervention, ‘Square the Block' (2009), located on a corner facade of the LSE Building in London, both mimics and subverts the existing facade, shifting our perception of the solidity of the stone from which it is constructed.
Often singled out for his concentration on site-specific projects, Wilson's name has perhaps more than that of any other become synonymous with the idea of installation in Britain..
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