How Odd. After thinking about her last week, I found out she will have a new piece exhibited starting today. I liked what my friend Phil Evans said about her:
“I really like this exploration of the space between. Kind of like finally seeing what you bought when you bought that condo: the air inside, and nothing else.”
A Room Is Captured
Source: New York TimesOver the years Rachel Whiteread has cast everything from water bottles and bathtubs to a Manhattan water tower, and even an entire house, in materials that include concrete, rubber, wax and plaster.
Now Ms. Whiteread has made a plaster cast of Room 101, an abandoned office that had been filled with boilers, ducts and vents at the BBC’s Broadcasting House, on Portland Place in London.
The sculpture was one of about 25 artists’ projects commissioned by the BBC. Some are temporary, others permanent. From Nov. 14 to June 27, Ms. Whiteread’s piece will be on view in the Cast Court of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
“It was a natural to approach the V and A, because of their famous Cast Court,” said Vivien Lovell, director of Modus Operandi, London-based public art consultants who have developed the BBC’s art program. The room will join a whole series of historical casts, like one of Michelangelo’s “David” and a full-size replica of Trajan’s Column in Rome.
Ms. Whiteread’s sculpture commemorates the office whose number Orwell adopted for the torture chamber in his dystopian novel “1984.” Orwell worked for the BBC as a producer for two years during World War II, and the sculpture was made to commemorate the centenary of Orwell’s birth before the room was demolished as part of the redevelopment of Broadcasting House.
Once it leaves the Victoria and Albert, Ms. Lovell said, it will go back to the artist and may be sold. “There’s still a question mark over its eventual home,” she said. Although the BBC doesn’t have the space to keep it, she added.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 
Seen Rachel’s work in London and Liverpool – excellent stuff. I remember that she cast the outside of a whole house!
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Did you see the same one I did i 2001? What did you think of the bookshelf?
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No I saw mine in something like 1996/7, probably the bookshelf was too advanced for her at that time!
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It was actually JUST a bookcase. Not a cast. The friend who bought it, I was told just got hired by one of the edgiest galleries in New York from London, so the guy MUST know something. He wouldn’t tell me why. He just said, “I Liked it.” Too bad he refuses to use email. I should call him. If I get around to doing that. I will tell you this reply!
Yan
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Saw the recent comments function on the bottom left, very useful. It would also be cool if an automated email contacted me if someone replied to my message – but it sounds too complicated right?
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