Page 70 - The MoMA/ Guggenheim issue of World of Art magazine (2001)

sOLOMON R. GUGGeNHeiM MUSEUM

artist ProFiLE
new york

PrEss PrEviEw

racHEL wHitErEad TRANsieNT spACes
TO OpeN AT THe sOLOMON R. GUGGeNHeiM MUseUM iN MARCH 8 THROUGH JUNe 5, 2002
Rachel Whiteread: Transient Spaces, an exhibition of two new sculptures by british artist Rachel
Whiteread, opens at the Solomon R. guggenheim Museum on March 8, 2002. The works, Untitled
(basement) (2001), and Untitled (apartment) (2001), which were commissioned by the deutsche
guggenheim berlin and exhibited there last fall, were cast from the artist’s new home and studio.
The two sculptures articulate the artist’s preoccupation with architecture as a reflection of
personal memory and history and as a means to address larger social forces. The exhibition will be
on view through June 5, 2002. This exhibition is made possible by deutsche bank.
“We are extremely proud to present these monumental new works by Rachel Whiteread,” noted
director Thomas krens. “Rachel is one of the most formidable sculptors of our time. Her unique
approach to the discipline is clear in these pieces, which possess an intense physical presence and
communicate a deep sense of humanity.”
The exhibition was organized by lisa dennison, deputy director and chief curator, Solomon R.
guggenheim Museum, new York. The exhibition is installed in the museum’s seventh-floor annex
gallery.
Over the last twenty years, Rachel Whiteread has transformed ordinary domestic objects and
architectural spaces into poetic sculptures that explore the relationship between memory,
architecture, and the body; and the private and public realm. in the late 1980’s, Whiteread began
making sculptures by casting household fixtures and furniture, including wardrobes, beds, sinks,
and baths, to create pieces which emphasize the private aspects of domestic life and reflect the
human body in symbolic terms. Using such industrial materials as plaster, concrete, rubber, and
polystyrene, Whiteread typically casts the space underneath, around, or inside the objects, creating
negative impressions of the items she works with. These forms record the shape and surface of
the original objects in detail, but not their physical presence, often invoking in the viewer a sense of
remembrance and feelings of absence and loss.
Over time, Whiteread expanded the scope of her program to include casts of larger architectonic
spaces. in 1993, the artist created her first public sculpture, entitled House. The work, an off-white
concrete cast of the interior spaces in a victorian working-class home, appeared as a phantom
of the original building and drew attention to the consequences of gentrification in east london
occurring at the time. in October 2000, Whiteread unveiled the Holocaust Memorial in vienna, a
commemoration to the 65,000 austrian Jews who were killed during World War ii. This monolithic
project - an impenetrable, inside-out library - alludes to nazi book burnings, and to the concept of
the “people of the book.”
The two new large-scale sculptures presented in Rachel Whiteread: Transient Spaces were created
from a london building that, over time, has had various functions, operating as a synagogue, a
textile merchant’s warehouse, and presently, as Whiteread’s residence and studio. With their
smooth, unadulterated surfaces, both works embody the generic nature of much postwar
architecture and emphasize the simple geometry of the structures from which they come. devoid
of architectural flourish, Untitled (apartment) (2001) is comprised of a series of small, nondescript
rooms, suggestive of the low-income, standardized housing that developed after World War ii as
europe strove to rebuild itself. Untitled (basement) (2001) is a cast of a staircase that, by being
reoriented on its side, engenders a surprising encounter between the viewer and this ordinary
architectural necessity. Through invoking the building’s history, Whiteread’s two sculptures reflect
on the aesthetic and sociological concerns and necessities that shaped post-war europe.
in the early 1990’s, Whiteread began to receive international attention as part of a stylistically
diverse group of artists referred to as the Young british artists. She has received such accolades
as the Tate gallery’s Turner Prize in 1993 and a medal at the 1997 venice biennale. Throughout
europe and the United States, her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions in
museums and galleries, and she has realized several public art projects. Most recently, in the
summer of 2001, her work was featured in a retrospective at the Serpentine gallery in london, and
a public sculpture entitled Monument was unveiled in Trafalgar Square.
The works presented in Rachel Whiteread: Transient Spaces were created as part of deutsche
guggenheim berlin’s ongoing program whereby new works by contemporary artists are
commissioned by and exhibited at the deutsche guggenheim berlin, and subsequently enter its
permanent collection. This program has made deutsche guggenheim berlin unique within the
arts community. in addition to Whiteread, artists who have created new works as part of this
program include: Jeff koons, James Rosenquist, andreas Slominski, Hiroshi Sugimoto, bill viola, and
lawrence Weiner.
68 WORLD of ART