RACHEL WHITEREAD

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is always a must see while in Buffalo; finding Rachel Whiteread's Untitled (domestic), 2002,  on display in the vast rotunda this weekend was a nice surprise.   The work is simply a plaster casting of the inside of a staircase, set on its side.  By casting the inside, Whiteread has allowed the viewer to see an inversion of space.  What was once the volume of the stairwell is now a solid.   What was once the walls, ceiling and floor is now gone.  The arrangement between the two still exists, only it is in reverse.  It is a small difference in a physical sense, as the actual staircase is still accurately represented,  but it creates a huge difference in the perception of reality.   It is difficult to imagine existing within the mass of the sculpture but it is in fact the sculpture that represents the entirety of the known and human space of the stairwell.   It's unsettling from the viewer's perspective,  as the space around the sculpture is really the unknown entity, yet this is the space they are currently occupying.

JT Hall