Rachel Whiteread is a British artist best known for her abstract assemblages. A refreshingly new approach to contemporary sculpture, it is her stark references of domestic life, captured through plaster castings, which allow for an interesting comparison. It is the positive space and inversed appearance of Whiteread's work, which pushes the boundaries of commonality and questions one’s physicality. Have we 'become the wall' (Mullins 2004, p. 23), looking out into the world around us?
Closet 1988, is one of Whiteread's first exhibited works, where a small wardrobe was cast and stripped down to its bare essentials. Unlike the majority of other works, Whiteread felt this particular work should be covered in black felt, concealing any physical traces and elements of its 'absent host' (Cooke, L., Curiger, B. & Hilty, G. 1992, p. 37).
A representation of a childhood recollection, it is Whiteread's vivid memory of playing in her 'grandmother's wardrobe... the smell and sensation of the darkness, as her sister locks her in' (Mullens 2004, pp.18 - 19), which connotes a sense of isolation.
In reviewing this particular work, I am reminded of several questions: What impacts do references of meaning and memory place upon such environments? How does the physical interaction with an urban environment change its cognitive perspective? How does one's relationship to a sense of place disrupt its sense of permanence?
Closet 1988, is one of Whiteread's first exhibited works, where a small wardrobe was cast and stripped down to its bare essentials. Unlike the majority of other works, Whiteread felt this particular work should be covered in black felt, concealing any physical traces and elements of its 'absent host' (Cooke, L., Curiger, B. & Hilty, G. 1992, p. 37).
A representation of a childhood recollection, it is Whiteread's vivid memory of playing in her 'grandmother's wardrobe... the smell and sensation of the darkness, as her sister locks her in' (Mullens 2004, pp.18 - 19), which connotes a sense of isolation.
In reviewing this particular work, I am reminded of several questions: What impacts do references of meaning and memory place upon such environments? How does the physical interaction with an urban environment change its cognitive perspective? How does one's relationship to a sense of place disrupt its sense of permanence?
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