Editing Rachel Whiteread (section)

===''Untitled Monument'' (2001)===

With ''Untitled Monument'' (2001), (also variously known as ''Plinth'' or ''Inverted Plinth''), Whiteread became the third artist to provide a sculpture for the empty [[Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square|Fourth plinth]] in [[Trafalgar Square]].<ref name="Ina Cole"/> Her sculpture was an 11-ton resin cast of the plinth itself, made by Mike Smith Studio, London,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mikesmithstudio.com/projects/monument/|title=Monument - Mike Smith Studio|date=31 January 2001}}</ref> which stood upside down, creating a sort of mirror-image of the plinth. It was said to be the most massive object ever made out of resin, taking eight attempts to produce due to the resin cracking.<ref>O'Grady, Carrie. "[https://www.theguardian.com/arts/turnerpeoplespoll/story/0,13945,1073498,00.html And the nominations are]". ''The Guardian'', 1 November 2003. Retrieved on 28 March 2007.</ref>

The work was produced in two halves, and surface blisters of the cast were repaired by picking them off and filling the small craters with a syringe of resin.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun/05/arts.arts | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Adrian | last=Searle | title=Whiteread's reminder of modernist ideals defies sentimentality | date=5 June 2001}}</ref> Unusually for a public work, she raised funds for the piece herself by selling maquettes (small preparatory models); this was no small gesture with the mold alone costing over £100,000 and the total cost estimated at £225,000<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun/05/arts.highereducation | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Maev | last=Kennedy | title=Acclaim greets Trafalgar Square sculpture | date=5 June 2001}}</ref>

The critical response included:
<blockquote>
"This dazzling anti-monument monument looks like a glass coffin, but its watery transparency relates to the large fountain that dominates the Trafalgar plaza. Following the aquatic theme, Whiteread's Monument evokes the scene of the 1805 naval battle for which the square is named."<ref>Ebony, David. "[http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/ebony/ebony8-20-01.asp London Calling]". ''Artnet'', 2006. Retrieved on 28 March 2007.</ref>
</blockquote>
: — David Ebony, ''Artnet''

<blockquote>
"It's a simple trick, but an effective one, and the associations it conjures – heaviness and lightness, earth and heaven, death and life – are thought-provoking and manifold [...] Whiteread's Monument, as light and gleaming as the plinth is dark and squat, is the only one of the four commissioned pieces to allude directly to the plinth's defining emptiness. She sees it not as a space to be filled, but as an absence to be acknowledged, and she does it well."
</blockquote>
: — Ned Denny, ''[[New Statesman]]'', 9 July 2001.