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Lot Essay
Rachel Whiteread's sculptures solidify space. Her negative casts of everyday objects have a strongly material presence, as Fiona Bradley says "they hold and occupy space, speaking to the viewer and to each other of the domestic landmarks of human experience." (Fiona Bradley, 'Rachel Whiteread Shedding Life', London, 1996, p.34.)
'Untitled (Square Sink)' 1990, is the cast from the underside of a wash basin. "The bowl is raised on a stack of plaster blocks, as though the image were entombed in a minimalist sculpture; the pedestal becomes the meeting point between abstraction and figuration. The negative of the missing fixture is a dessicated echo of the original. Filled with plaster, the holes for the taps become projections, like stunted horns of bleached bones, as useless as a blocked outlet.
Washing is as much a ritual as a practical activity, a means toward spiritual as well as physical cleansing. 'Say with your mind that the garment of the soul is the body, and keep it pure, since it is
sinless', reads a Gnostic maxim. The elevated height of Whiteread's
bowl transforms it into a ritual vessel, a font whose waters welcome
the newborn into the community. Those who have not been ritually
blessed are outsiders, so are the unwashed. 'Untitled (Square Sink)' is a monument to the centrality of washing in our society." (Sarah Kent & J. Blyth, 'Shark Infested Waters, The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90's, London, 1994, p.104.)
'Untitled (Square Sink)' 1990, is the cast from the underside of a wash basin. "The bowl is raised on a stack of plaster blocks, as though the image were entombed in a minimalist sculpture; the pedestal becomes the meeting point between abstraction and figuration. The negative of the missing fixture is a dessicated echo of the original. Filled with plaster, the holes for the taps become projections, like stunted horns of bleached bones, as useless as a blocked outlet.
Washing is as much a ritual as a practical activity, a means toward spiritual as well as physical cleansing. 'Say with your mind that the garment of the soul is the body, and keep it pure, since it is
sinless', reads a Gnostic maxim. The elevated height of Whiteread's
bowl transforms it into a ritual vessel, a font whose waters welcome
the newborn into the community. Those who have not been ritually
blessed are outsiders, so are the unwashed. 'Untitled (Square Sink)' is a monument to the centrality of washing in our society." (Sarah Kent & J. Blyth, 'Shark Infested Waters, The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90's, London, 1994, p.104.)