Rachel Whiteread [Widescreen]

Episode of Series “TheEYE”.
Part of a series of interview-based profiles of contemporary visual artists in Britain - this episode focuses on Rachel Whiteread, a sculptor who has created some of the most remarkable and resonant public works of recent years. Whiteread discusses the way in which she makes her art, how her ideas are formed, addressing the themes of mortality and memory. Whiteread works in materials such as plaster and resin, accommodating the spaces in, around and behind furniture, walls, floors and staircases. One of her most famous works “House” (1993), now demolished, was the interior of a terraced house in London’s East End, cast in concrete. This public art piece caused a great furore in the press, exacerbated upon her winning the Turner Prize. In archival footage Whiteread remarks upon her intentions for the work at the time of its creation and, in contemporary interview, discusses the great toll that “House” took on her personally. Whiteread was later commissioned to make “Holocaust Memorial” (2000) in Vienna - five years in the making, and as with “House” and “Monument” (2000), erected in Trafalgar Square, was the source of much contention.