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Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain, organised by Tate and National Gallery of Art, Washington, celebrates 30 years of acclaimed artist Rachel Whiteread’s works. Reflecting Whiteread’s career, the show includes inspirational found objects and investigative drawings as well as casts, for which the artist is renowned, in a mix of eminent pieces, such as Untitled (staircase) 2001, and previously unseen works.

While there are photographs of some of Whiteread’s momentous works such as Untitled monument, a resin sculpture of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar square the exhibition pays homage to the artist’s practice as a whole as she “explores the human imprint on our everyday environment”. The exhibition deftly captures key focuses of Whiteread’s works such as negative space, material and scale and leads the viewer through the artist’s journey of transforming the mundane in to the unexpected and beautiful with a steady flow of change in these ideas from piece to piece. Concrete casts of the underside of tables and beds leads on to casts of hot water bottles in resin, plaster and rubber,  then in to a dolls’ house in resin; a plaster and  fibreglass cast of the inside of a room; and insides of toilet paper rolls in multiple colourful media.

The uncluttered space and deceptively familiar shapes of the pieces make the exhibition a relaxing and comfortable place to be. In the space that reflects the artist’s architectural and orderly feel in the cast concrete ceiling and white walls, unfocused, top down lighting of the exhibition creates additional depth with shadows and highlights. Playing to Whiteread’s use of both opaque and translucent media as well as the contrasts between shiny and matte, this brings to life hidden details and imperfections, such as those on the walls of the Victorian room, that change as the pieces are viewed from different angles.

Author unnamed (2017) Tate Available from:http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/rachel-whiteread

[Accessed 6/12/17]