"House" Rachel Whiteread

 

"House" Rachel Whiteread 1993 Bow, East London

"House" is a full scale culture cast of the inside of a town house that was displayed as a temporary piece of public art in in the location of where similar houses had been torn down for the purpose of development.  Contemporary art in the 1990s, was being push forward by young, radical artist pushing the boundaries of art and taking art out of the galleries and into the main stream public, where it was often met with mixed opinion and opposition. Rachel whiteread was amongst this group of artists and this work caused public outrage and a media storm at the time, despite its solid structure it remained in situe for only 11 weeks

This work, as well as being a social / political comment on the rapid gentrification of the time is also a personal testimony by Whiteread to memory , loss and forgotten things. 

Its the internal of a home, a sanctuary yet as it  cast in cement, it becomes an impenetrable thing that offers no comfort or shelter, like a tomb stone, its only serves as reminder of what was.

It is a stark, brutalist looking,  cement structure, I can understand why people wouldn't like the look of it but I guess that's the point, It wasn't made to be beautiful it was made  to communicate an idea. Its got a claustrophobic feeling, the windows and doors are sealed in cement, there is no colour, its a ghost of something past.

In terms of my project, its telling me to look beyond the actual physical structure and think about how materials change the meaning and purpose of the structure.

It also makes me think of the purpose and structure of the actual museum, another testament to what has past.

Currently I'm working in print on paper, I want to expand this by printing on different surfaces  with more texture and structure, I will experiment with fabric and with printing on the weaved  frames that I used in the lace project as the museum and town has a history with lace making. These themes of industry, landscape and land marks from the impenetrable past are things that are coming up for me within this project.

Below is a photo I took on the back streets of Ilkeston. Its a cement structure entrance to a car park, its quite bleak and brutalist looking. its one of the alternative landmark motifs I'm developing along with my box prints and reminds me a little of Whitereads "House"