Rachel Whiteread (1963 – )

Demolished Portfolio

Whiteread casts directly from the negative space around and inside familiar utilitarian objects using plaster, resin and rubber. What remains is a reminder, ephemeral space and time made solid and tangible. Her work traces memory and absence, the cast sculptures bearing evidence of the original object; colour from wallpaper seeping into casting plaster, or imperfections in the underside of a cast iron bath tub faithfully recorded in resin. In addition to her sculpture, Whiteread uses photography as part of her practice: photographs of structures, buildings under construction or demolition, furniture abandoned in the street, empty rooms. In 1993 she confirmed her position as one of the most important artists of her generation and gained international fame with House, a sculpture cast from the interior space of an entire condemned Victorian terraced house. The resulting sculpture was left in the location where the original house had once stood, on Grove Road in London’s east end. House stood for three months before being demolished by Hackney Council to clear a communal park.

The images in the Demolished Portfolio show the demolition of three tower blocks of public housing flats in the East End of London and originated from the artist’s own 35 mm colour slides. The slides were stripped of colour to be screenprinted in grainy black and white as if they were reportage works from a war front. The events portrayed in Demolished have important personal resonances for the artist. In the early 1990s she was living in London's East End, a historically poor area. Her experiences here, noting the effect on local communities arising from dramatic socio-economic changes and the increasing gentrification of the area later in the decade, informed her work. The tower blocks in Demolished could be in almost any city in the world and stand for social planning world-wide. 

Untitled (Torso)

Whiteread casts directly from the negative space around and inside familiar utilitarian objects using plaster, resin and rubber. What remains is a reminder, ephemeral space and time made solid and tangible. Her work traces memory and absence, the cast sculptures bearing evidence of the original object; colour from wallpaper seeping into casting plaster, or imperfections in the underside of a cast iron bath tub faithfully recorded in resin. In addition to her sculpture, Whiteread uses photography as part of her practice: photographs of structures, buildings under construction or demolition, furniture abandoned in the street, empty rooms. In 1993 she confirmed her position as one of the most important artists of her generation and gained international fame with House, a sculpture cast from the interior space of an entire condemned Victorian terraced house. The resulting sculpture was left in the location where the original house had once stood, on Grove Road in London’s east end. House stood for three months before being demolished by Hackney Council to clear a communal park.

Untitled (Torso) is one of a series of works cast from dental plaster from a hot water bottle, which functions as a stand in for the human torso. Whiteread stated, "When I was at the Slade, I made pieces with hot-water bottles, filling them with water and sewing them inside pillowcases and things. They'd look like clothes... I always had that interest in filling something up and making it change its essence, but later on I figured out what kind of materials to use." She also commented, on her use of plaster, “I've used plaster for 20-odd years, often dental plaster, for casting large pieces. It's delicate – more like stone when it's hardened. Some plaster will take on colors – if you're casting the underside of a table, it'll take colour from the table and make a kind of fresco on its surface."