Rachel Whiteread: Transient Spaces

A Guggenheim Museum Publication Rachel Whiteread (b. 1963) creates spare, poetic sculptures that challenge perceptions of the commonplace. Working from everyday domestic items, she casts-in rubber, concrete, plaster, and polyester resin-the negative spaces inside closets and underneath beds, sinks, bathtubs, and chairs. Now, in what may be her most personal project to date, the Turner Prize-winning artist has been commissioned by Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin to make two large-scale casts from distinct spaces in a London building that she recently purchased to become her home and studio. Although the building has a history as both a synagogue and a factory, it is a product of austere postwar architecture, lacking many of the traditional embellishments associated with such structures. This fully illustrated volume documents Whiteread's process as she creates casts from this religious-cum-industrial-cum-personal space, which blurs boundaries between the spiritual and secular, as well as the public and private. 75 illustrations in full color, 170 pages, 9 x 11"