Whiteread

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of art I think I've seen. It is called "House", and the artist, Rachel Whiteread, is famous for making castings of things, one of her more famous pieces is the casting of a library as a memorial for the Jews killed in the holocaust. This peice is a casting of a house in a neighborhood full of row houses that was condemned for destruction. Before they tore down the whole neighborhood, she filled the house with cement and made a casting, and then peeled away the "skin" which was the frame of the house. The local government eventually destroyed this piece of art, and its presence gathered quite a bit of attention in the local community. There is a wonderful website by John Davies which captures the process of creating this piece of art. The most powerful image he captured, in my opinion, is the last one which an image of the empty space that now occupied where this casting once stood. It all feels very vacant to me, but I think that just means Whiteread's piece was successful.

It's just so incredible for me to see that space represented by a block of cement, especially with the background of a huge empty field where an entire neighborhood used to be. Maybe this resonates especially strong with me because this house looks very similar to the one my mother grew up in, in Philadelphia. That space is where a life used to exist. For somebody, their entire life happened in that small bit of space in the universe.... family dinners, birthday parties, first day of school, maybe more.. .who knows. That cement represents someone's existence in the universe, and I think that's what Whiteread has captured.