In August 2014, Wentworth was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue. [1] Making Do and Getting By [ edit ] Wentworth, like Atget, rarely photographs people, and yet "his world is human, all the more human, for being uninhabited." Whether in his gentle anthropomorphism - a decrepit car, its drooping bumper bandaged with carpet as if wounded - or in his alertness to the practical, yet curious decisions made when dealing with the vicissitudes of life - like the hurried shopper who abandons his dog in the street, chained, not to the railings, but to his shoulder bag - Wentworth's photographs make us look afresh at the cityspace and the humanity it contains. I enjoy their work, but for very different reasons. Wentworth's images do not have the density and richness of Atget's, from which Szarkowski teases an entire world, making a point about Atget that also applies to Wentworth: "In an ideal world there is a place for everything, but in the real world things tend to migrate to places where they do not belong."

See Richard Wentworth, Making Do and Getting By, with an interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Koenig Books, 2016 Special Morgan Stanley Lates event on 22 June to celebrate the opening of Eternally Yours, offering after-hours access and free exclusive experiences, including transforming time with artist Abigail Conway in the spectacular surrounds of Somerset House’s courtyard WAMI (Yaseen Wami, Hashim Taeeh), Untitled, 2013, installation view in ‘Welcome to Iraq’ at the 2013 Venice Biennale, courtesy of the artists, photo by Francesco Allegretto JWThat’s absolutely right. I remember my father telling me about his time fighting in the Second World War. I asked what it was like and he said he was bored most of the time. But people forget this – especially now, due to the nature of news and current affairs. And this is why I didn’t want to dwell on diasporic points of view. Also, they tend to be fixated on questions of national identity and on what has happened to their country since they left, heightening emotions about what it is like to be there. But in Iraq then, children were still going to school, people were falling in love, watching TV, being bored, making films about everyday life ...

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JW There were Israeli artists, Guy Bar-Amotz and Noa Zait, and a Palestinian artist, Khalil Rabah, in the show and I felt very strongly about striking that geopolitical balance. Certainly, I wasn’t ranging around in North Africa or looking at Iraq, Iran, etc. I was also aware that there were no artists from South Asia, from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh. Obviously, I placed more emphasis on Southeast Asia, as you can see there are lots of artists from Thailand, Korea, Japan, China and Hong Kong. I was reflecting the geographic context. Likewise, therefore, there was a disproportionate number of Australian artists. Azadeh Sarjoughian is a doctoral researcher in the history of art at the University of Birmingham in the UK where her focus is the representation of sexuality and gender identity in contemporary Middle Eastern art. She also received her MRes in Sexuality and Gender Studies at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests include postcolonial theories, feminist theory and contemporary art. Since the early 1970s Wentworth has been capturing chance encounters of oddities and discrepancies in the modern landscape in the ongoing photographic series known as Making Do and Getting By. Mundane snapshots and fragments of the modern landscape are elevated to an analysis of human resourcefulness and improvisation, whereby amusing oddities that would otherwise go by unnoticed become the subject of intense contemplation. The Courtauld Gallery – set within Somerset House’s North Wing – will remain open for after-hours access too, including The Morgan Stanley Exhibition: Edvard Munch. Masterpieces from Bergen. Following the theme of repair and renovation, The Courtauld’s expert team will provide pop-up talks and special demonstrations on the art of conservation, unveiling the tools they use to keep the paintings in the Gallery’s permanent collection looking so vibrant, as if the artists had just finished their last brushstrokes. Azadeh Sarjoughian Can you explain why you chose the title ‘Every Day’ for the 11th Biennale of Sydney, and what was the necessity of choosing this theme at that time?

Dezeuze, Anna (2013) Photography Ways of Living and Richard Wentworth’s Making Do, Getting By (accessed at Acedemia 30.9.16) – https://www.academia.edu/5269475/Photography_Ways_of_Living_and_Richard_Wentworths_Making_Do_Getting_By_Oxford_Art_Journal_36.2_2013_pp._281-300 Further highlights from artists and designers including Linda Brothwell, Ellen Sampson, Georgina Maxim, muf architecture/art, Yuko Edwards, Teresa Dillon and Maiko Tsutsumi Tate Liverpool is presenting the largest and most comprehensive exhibition to date devoted to British sculptor Richard Wentworth. The exhibition includes work in many media from the last thirty years as well as new work made especially for Tate Liverpool. Double Lifetime by Loudon Wainwright III: it's about how great it would be if you got two lives. He's a beautiful, funny writer. I get the sense that he's been impossible to live with, too. AS Over the years of your directorship at the Ikon in Birmingham, many of those artists that you worked with at the biennales have had exhibitions in the gallery. How do you define the practice of diversification in an institution such as Ikon? And do you apply different strategies in designing public engagements with non-Western artworks or those art works that are sensitive to the phenomenon of exoticism?JWAnd it was important to consider that there had been an Iraqi pavilion preceding mine that was like a reconstruction of a war-torn building with the emphasis definitely on conflict. So, I was positioning myself to some extent in relation to that. Visitors will have the chance to explore what repair means to them first-hand, with live demonstrations and workshops in the installation at the heart of the exhibition, the Beasley Brothers’ Repair Shop. The brainchild of designer Carl Clerkin, the installation is modelled on traditional East End repair shops of old, that could - and would - repair anything. A host of artists and designers, including Gitta Gschwendtner, Jasleen Kaur, Poppy Booth, Fiona Davidson, Michael Marriott, Alex Hellum and Jon Harrison, will join Clerkin in the repair shop throughout the exhibition’s run, transforming discarded objects into something not only useful but beautiful. Designer Peter Marigold will show visitors the potential of Formcard, the mouldable, reusable bioplastics he created to fix broken objects and create useful everyday tools. ​ What is there to connect Wentworth with Eugène Atget, both of whose works are on show at London's Photographers' Gallery? They occupy adjacent rooms and different epochs. The Atgets - which mostly date from the turn of the last century - sit in dim light, framed and fading. The Wentworths are perched on a shelf which runs around the walls of a brightly lit room. Contrast and compare, the exhibition seems to say.