A new commission for Wentworth Woodhouse as part of the House of Fun exhibition 5 August – 16 November 2025 and for Keppel’s Column 8 – 9 August 2025. Part of the first ever Children’s Capital of Culture 2025.
The Whistlejacket Room at Wentworth Woodhouse hosts a 6m high recreation of the Rockingham Monument plus four smaller structures designed by local children and young people on which their portraits are displayed. The sculptures are constructed from scaffolding tubes and offer spaces in which to chill out and view this opulent room from a different perspective.
Four additional structures will also be sited at Keppel’s Column as part of a two-day outdoor event hosted by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.
Background
There are several follies associated with Wentworth Woodhouse and this project focusses on Keppel’s Column and the Rockingham Monument as physical expressions of friendship: Keppel’s Column was constructed by Charles Watson-Wentworth to commemorate the acquittal at a court martial of close friend Admiral Augustus Keppel in 1779. Similarly, the Rockingham Monument built by William Wentworth Fitzwilliam in 1785 in memory of Charles Watson-Wentworth contains a statue of Charles’s and six of his closest friends Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox, Admiral Keppel, Lord John Cavendish, John Lee, the Duke of Portland, Frederick Montagu and Sir George Saville.
Friendship Follies reimagines these historic follies in scaffolding tubes, a material that has had a near constant presence at Wentworth Woodhouse: in the present (and the future) as the house undergoes restoration works and cleaning; and in the past as a reference to the near perpetual building works that have taken place over its 400 year history as the house was added to.
Scaffolding as a medium symbolises change and transformation, not just in the physical sense but also in an economic one as the house transitioned from the private ownership of the landed aristocracy to a trust that welcomes people from all classes and backgrounds in 2017. Once the playground of the rich and famous, the state rooms now become the playground of local young people who can see themselves and their friends represented alongside former Marquesses and Earls.
The photographic portraits of children and young people are in the style of artist Anthony Van Dyck who painted the rich and famous in the 18th century. A number of his portraits will be displayed in the room next door as they return to Wentworth Woodhouse for the first time since the 1940s. In the days before photography and social media Van Dyck was the ultimate image maker who made his subjects look elegant and important. Here, local children and young people have styled themselves like Van Dyck portraits only this time with their own real-life Snapchat filters.
The state rooms at Wentworth Woodhouse have always been social spaces – from the lavish parties and gatherings thrown by the incumbent family to show off their wealth and status and to strengthen political affiliations and friendships, to the Junior Common Room of Lady Mabel College of PE where students socialised. Now, local kids and teenagers have the opportunity to socialise in bespoke structures that reference the past and celebrate contemporary friendships.
Portrait photos by Jules Lister.
A massive thank you to all the staff and volunteers at Wentworth Woodhouse and Rotherham Borough Council; the children and young people from Rotherham; Temp Scaffold Design and Engineering; MD Scaffolding Solutions; Award Banners; Jules Lister Photography.
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Friendship Follies
Wentworth Woodhouse
Wentworth, Rotherham S62 7TQ, UK
5 August – 16 November 2025
Keppel’s Column
Admirals Crest, Rotherham S61 2SW, UK
8-9 August 2025
