Editing Rachel Whiteread

{{Short description|English artist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2011}}
{{Infobox artist
| honorific_prefix = [[Dame]]
| name             = Rachel Whiteread
| image            = Rachel Whiteread 2018.jpg
| caption          = Rachel Whiteread, 2018
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{Birth date and age |df=yes|1963|4|20}}
| birth_place      = [[Ilford]], [[Essex]], England
| death_date       = 
| death_place      = 
| nationality      = English
| field            = Sculpture, [[Installation art]]
| training         = {{plainlist|
* [[University of Brighton|Brighton Polytechnic]], [[Brighton]]
* [[Cyprus College of Art]], [[Lempa, Cyprus|Lemba]]
* [[Slade School of Fine Art]], London
}}
| movement         = [[Young British Artists]]
| works            = {{plainlist|
* ''Ghost'' (1990)
* ''[[House (sculpture)|House]]'' (1993)
* [[Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial]] (2000)
* ''Untitled Monument'' ([[Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square|Fourth plinth]]) (2001)
* ''Embankment'' (2005–2006)
}}
| patrons = [[Environmental Justice Foundation]]
| awards = {{plainlist|
* [[Turner Prize]] (1993)
* [[K Foundation art award]] (1994)
}}
| honorific_suffix = [[Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire|DBE]]
}}
'''Dame Rachel Whiteread''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DBE}} (born 20 April 1963) is an English artist who primarily produces sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She was the first woman to win the annual [[Turner Prize]] in 1993.<ref name="Turner"/>

Whiteread was one of the [[Young British Artists]] who exhibited at the [[Royal Academy]]'s ''[[Sensation exhibition|Sensation]]'' exhibition in 1997. Among her most renowned works are ''[[House (sculpture)|House]]'', a large concrete cast of the inside of an entire Victorian house; the [[Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial]] in Vienna, resembling the shelves of a library with the pages turned outwards; and ''Untitled Monument'', her [[resin]] sculpture for the empty [[fourth plinth]] in London's [[Trafalgar Square]].<ref name="Ina Cole">{{cite book |editor1-last=Cole |editor-first1=Ina |title=From the Sculptor’s Studio: Conversations with Twenty Seminal Artists |year=2021 |publisher=Laurence King Publishing Ltd |page=244-255|isbn=9781913947590 |oclc=1420954826}}</ref>

She was appointed [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in 2006 and [[Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (DBE) in the [[2019 Birthday Honours]] for services to art.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=62666|supp=y|page=B8|date=8 June 2019}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Whiteread was born in 1963 in Ilford, Essex.<ref>Birth registered in Ilford Registration District in the second quarter of 1963.</ref><ref name=Wroe2013>{{cite news |last=Wroe |first=Richard |title=Rachel Whiteread: a life in art |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/apr/06/rachel-whiteread-life-in-art |newspaper=The Guardian |date=5 April 2013}}</ref> Her mother, Patricia Whiteread (''née'' Lancaster), who was also an artist, died in 2003 at the age of 72.<ref>Death registered in Tower Hamlets Registration District in December 2003.</ref> Her father, Thomas Whiteread, was a geography teacher, [[polytechnic (United Kingdom)|polytechnic]] [[Academic administration|administrator]] and lifelong supporter of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], who died when Whiteread was studying at art school in 1988.<ref>Death registered in Islington Registration District in September 1988.</ref> She is the third of three sisters – the older two being [[identical twins]].<ref name=Wroe2013 />

She took a workshop on casting with the sculptor [[Richard Wilson (sculptor)|Richard Wilson]] and began to realize the possibilities in casting objects.<ref name=Wroe2013 /> She was briefly at the [[Cyprus College of Art]]. From 1985 to 1987 she studied sculpture at [[Slade School of Art]], [[University College, London]], where she was taught by [[Phyllida Barlow]], graduating with an MA in 1987.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/09/bish-bash-bosh-how-phyllida-barlow-conquered-the-art-world-at-73|title=Bish-bash-bosh: how Phyllida Barlow conquered the art world at 73|last=Higgins|first=Charlotte|date=2017-05-09|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-10-05|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name=Wroe2013 /> Whiteread worked as an invigilator at the [[Serpentine Gallery]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://1995-2015.undo.net/it/mostra/13319|title=Turpentine|website=Studio Voltaire|access-date=2018-03-06}}</ref>

For a time she worked in [[Highgate Cemetery]] fixing lids back onto time-damaged coffins. She began to exhibit in 1987, with her first solo exhibition coming in 1988.<ref name="Zelevansky1994">{{cite book|last=Zelevansky|first=Lynn |title=Sense and Sensibility: Women Artists and Minimalism in the Nineties |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61Cj8ov1YzYC&pg=PA26|year=1994|publisher=The Museum of Modern Art|isbn=978-0-8109-6131-9|pages=26–29}}</ref> She lives and works in a former synagogue in east London with long-term partner and fellow sculptor Marcus Taylor. They have two sons.<ref name=Barber2005>{{cite news |last=Barber |first=Lynn |title=Boxing clever |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/oct/16/art1 |newspaper=The Observer |location=London |date=15 October 2005}}</ref><ref name=Barber2001 />

==Work==
Many of Whiteread's works are casts of ordinary domestic objects and, in numerous cases, their so-called [[negative space]]. For example, she is known for making solid casts of the open space in and around pieces of furniture such as tables and chairs, architectural details and even entire rooms and buildings.<ref>{{cite web |last=Manchester |first=Elizabeth |title=Rachel Whiteread: Untitled (Nine Tables) 1998 - Summary |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/whiteread-untitled-nine-tables-t07984 |publisher=Tate |date=March 2005 |access-date=15 June 2016}}</ref> She says the casts carry "the residue of years and years of use."<ref>{{cite news |last=Brooks |first=Xan |title=The Guardian Profile: Rachel Whiteread |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/oct/07/art |newspaper=The Guardian |date=7 October 2005}}</ref> Whiteread mainly focuses on the line and the form for her pieces.

While still at the Slade, Whiteread cast domestic objects and created her first sculpture, ''Closet''.<ref name="Ina Cole"/> She made a plaster cast of the interior of a wooden wardrobe and covered it with black felt. It was based on comforting childhood memories of hiding in a dark closet.<ref name=Wroe2013 /> After she graduated she rented space for a studio using the [[Enterprise Allowance Scheme]]. She created ''Shallow Breath'' (1988), the cast of the underside of a bed, made not long after her father died.<ref name=Wroe2013 /><ref name="Ina Cole"/> Both sculptures were exhibited in her first solo show in 1988 along with casts of other domestic pieces. The work all sold and allowed her to apply for grants to find funding for larger sculptures.<ref name=Wroe2013 />

===''Ghost''===
After her first solo exhibition, Whiteread decided to cast the space that her domestic objects could have inhabited. She applied for grants, describing the project as "mummifying the air in a room."<ref name=Tusa2004>{{cite interview |last=Whiteread |first=Rachel |interviewer=[[John Tusa]] |title=The John Tusa Interviews - Rachel Whiteread |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ncxzw |publisher=[[BBC Radio 3]] |date=4 January 2004}}</ref> She completed ''Ghost'' in 1990.<ref name="Ina Cole"/> It was cast from a room in a house on Archway Road in north London, much like the house she grew up in.<ref name=Burn2005>{{cite news |last=Burn |first=Gordon |title=Still breaking the mould |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/oct/11/art |newspaper=The Guardian |date=10 October 2005}}</ref> The road was being widened, and the house was torn down. She used plaster to cast the parlor walls and ceiling in sections and assembled them on a metal frame.<ref>{{cite AV media |title=Rachel Whiteread: "Ghost" |url=http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/audio-video/video/rachel-whiteread.html |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=3 June 2014}}</ref>

''Ghost'' was first shown at the nonprofit [[Chisenhale Gallery]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://chisenhale.org.uk/exhibition/rachel-whiteread/|title=Archive Past Exhibitions Rachel Whiteread|publisher=Chisenhale Gallery|access-date=3 June 2014}}</ref> It was purchased by [[Charles Saatchi]] and included with other works by Whiteread in his first ''[[Young British Artists|Young British Art]]'' show in 1992.<ref name=KentCork1999>{{cite book |last1=Kent |first1=Sarah |author2=Richard Cork |author3=Dick Price |title=Young British Art: The Saatchi Decade |year=1999 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-0-8109-6389-4 |page=18}}</ref> In May 2004 a fire in a [[Momart]] storage warehouse destroyed many works from the Saatchi collection, including, it is believed, some by Whiteread. However, ''Ghost'' had recently been moved from the warehouse to the new [[Gagosian Gallery]] in London.<ref>{{cite news |last=Higgens |first=Charlotte |author2=Vikram Dodd |title=50 years of British art lies in ashes |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/may/27/thebritartfire.arts1 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=27 May 2004}}</ref> The work was acquired by the [[National Gallery of Art]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] in the autumn of 2004.<ref>{{cite news |last=Richard |first=Paul |title=In the Anti-Room, No One's Home |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33147-2004Nov7.html |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=8 November 2004}}</ref> According to the National Gallery, "She has worked on every scale, defining the space between positives and negatives, public and private, and manufactured and handmade objects, always with concision, intelligence, beauty, and power."<ref>{{cite web |title=Ghost |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.131285.html |website=Art Object Page |year=1990 |access-date=14 October 2022}}</ref>

===''House'' and the Turner Prize===
In October 1993 Whiteread completed ''[[House (sculpture)|House]]'', the cast of a Victorian [[Terraced house|terrace house]].<ref name="Ina Cole"/> She had begun considering casting an entire house in 1991. She and [[James Lingwood]] of [[Artangel]] looked at houses to be torn down in North and East London in 1992, but without success in securing one.<ref name="Lingwood1995">{{cite book |editor=Lingwood, James |title=Rachel Whiteread: House |chapter-url=http://www.artangel.org.uk//projects/1993/house/an_idea_without_a_name/james_lingwood_the_story |year=1995 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=978-0-7148-3459-7 |chapter=Introduction |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100630134718/http://www.artangel.org.uk/projects/1993/house/an_idea_without_a_name/james_lingwood_the_story |archive-date=30 June 2010 }}</ref> During this period in 1992 and 1993, Whiteread had an artist residency in Berlin with a scholarship from the [[German Academic Exchange Service|DAAD]] [[DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program|Artist's Programme]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gagosian.com/artists/rachel-whiteread |title=Rachel Whiteread Biography|date=12 April 2018|publisher=Gagosian Gallery|access-date=5 June 2018}}</ref> While in Berlin, she created ''Untitled (Room)'', the cast of a generic, anonymous room that she built herself. She finished the interior of a room-sized box with wallpaper, windows, and door before casting.<ref name="Zelevansky1994" /> The sculpture is in the collection of the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Collection - Rachel Whiteread: Untitled (Room) |url=http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A6910&page_number=9&template_id=1&sort_order=1 |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |access-date= 5 June 2014}}</ref>

''House'', perhaps her best-known work, was a concrete cast of the inside of an entire Victorian terraced house completed in autumn 1993, exhibited at the location of the original house – 193 Grove Road – in East London (all the houses in the street had earlier been knocked down by the council). It drew mixed responses, winning her both the [[Turner Prize]] for the best young British artist in 1993 and the [[K Foundation art award]] for the worst British artist.<ref>Walker, John A. (1999) [http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Rachel-Whiteread-House-1993-library-2010 The house that no longer was a home], excerpt from ''Art & Outrage''. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213110546/http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Rachel-Whiteread-House-1993-library-2010 |date=13 December 2011}}
</ref> She was the first woman to win a Turner Prize.<ref name="Turner">{{cite web |last=Greenberger |first=Alex |title=Art 101: A Short History of the Turner, the Art World's Most Scandalous Prize  |url=http://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/art_market/the_scandalous_history_of_the_turner_prize-51816 |publisher=ArtSpace |date=3 December 2013 |access-date=15 June 2016}}</ref> [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets|Tower Hamlets]] London Borough Council demolished ''House'' on 11 January 1994,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Roberts|first=Alison|url=http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=375|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606224517/http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=375 |title=Best and worst of art bites the dust|archive-date=6 June 2014|newspaper=The Times|date=12 January 1994|via=Library of Mu}}</ref> a decision which caused some controversy itself.

===''Untitled (One Hundred Spaces)'' (1997)===
For the ''[[Sensation exhibition|Sensation]]'' exhibition in 1997, Whiteread exhibited ''Untitled (One Hundred Spaces)'', a series of resin casts of the space underneath chairs. This work can be seen as a descendant of [[Bruce Nauman]]'s concrete cast of the area under his chair of 1965.

The critical response included:
<blockquote>
"like a field of large glace sweets, it is her most spectacular, and benign installation to date [...] Monuments to domesticity, they are like solidified jellies, opalescent ice-cubes, or bars of soap – lavender, rose, spearmint, lilac. They look like a regulated graveyard or a series of futuristic standing stones with a passing resemblance to television sets."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199610/ai_n8754228 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071130075510/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199610/ai_n8754228 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-11-30 |title=Solid space |year=1996 |work=The Spectator |first=Andrew |last=Lambirth }}</ref>
</blockquote>
: — Andrew Lambirth, ''[[The Spectator]]'', 12 October 1996.

===''Water Tower''===
In 1998, Whiteread made ''Water Tower'' as part of a grant for New York City's [[Public Art Fund]]. The piece, which is 12' 2" and 9' in diameter, was a translucent resin cast of a [[water tower]] installed on a rooftop in New York City's [[SoHo]] district.<ref name="Neri1999">{{cite book|last=Neri|first=Louise|title=Looking up: Rachel Whiteread's Water Tower|year=1999|publisher=Public Art Fund|isbn=978-3-908247-16-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/rachelwhitereads0000unse}}</ref> It has been called "an extremely beautiful object, which changes colour with the sky, and also a very appropriate one, celebrating one of the most idiosyncratic and charming features of the New York skyline."<ref name=Barber2001 /> The piece is now in the permanent collection of the [[Museum of Modern Art]] (MoMA).<ref>{{cite web |title=Rachel Whiteread. Water Tower. 1998 |url=http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=82016 |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art |access-date=22 February 2014}}</ref> Just as ''Ghost'' led on to the larger and better known ''House'', so ''Water Tower'' led to the more public Trafalgar Square plinth work three years later.<ref name=Barber2001>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2001/may/27/features.magazine47 |newspaper=The Observer |location=London |title=Some day, my plinth will come |first=Lynn |last=Barber |date=26 May 2001}}</ref>

===''Holocaust Monument'' a.k.a. ''Nameless Library'' (2000)===
{{main|Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial}}
[[Image:Rachel whitereadwien holocaust mahnmal wien judenplatz.jpg|thumb|right|''Holocaust Monument'' (2000) [[Judenplatz]], Vienna]]
During the Holocaust, 65,000 Austrian Jews were executed, and in memory, ''Monument to the Victims of Fascism'' was a monument erected to commemorate these lost lives, however, this piece was seen as unsatisfying, so [[Simon Wiesenthal]] proposed the idea for a new memorial to the mayor of Vienna. With the condition that this memorial could not be figurative and needed to represent all 65,000 lives and the camps they were executed at, Rachel Whiteread was chosen out of ten artists to create this monument. Her monument ''[[Nameless Library]]'' was erected in Judenplatz Square in Vienna and appears to be an inside-out library.<ref name="Ina Cole"/> This structure was built from positively cast cement books which are placed with their spines facing inward. The inability to read these books alludes to the lost lives of the 65,000 [[Austrian Jews]] whose stories are unable to be told leaving the viewer with a sense of loss and absence. These books have also been seen as referring to the [[Nazi book burnings]]. The sculpture also does not include corners or bookshelves which further symbolizes the lack of structure and support.

''Nameless Library'' also is constructed on the excavation grounds of Vienna's oldest synagogues which caused a lot of criticism towards the piece as many citizens felt that the grounds sufficed for the memorial itself. Some critics even accused her of stereotyping the Jewish people as "the people of the book" considering that Jewish memorials were traditionally written. This monument also questions the architectural concepts of interior and exterior as the building surrounding the square form walls, and the streets leading into it like doorways. In addition, the inverted rose ceiling works as a drainage point to the interior of the sculpture.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://unitec.researchbank.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10652/2232/IDEA.pdf?sequence=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128010101/http://unitec.researchbank.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10652/2232/IDEA.pdf?sequence%3D1|title=Silent Witness: Rachel Whiteread's Nameless Library|last=Carley|first=Rachel|year=2010|website=Idea Journal|archive-date=2019-01-28|url-status=dead|access-date=30 March 2018}}</ref>

===''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.

===''Embankment'' (2005–2006)===
<!-- Should EMBANKMENT be (2004) or (2005)? -->
[[Image:Whiteread tate 1.jpg|thumb|''Embankment'']]
In spring 2004, she was offered the annual [[Unilever]] series commission to produce a piece for [[Tate Modern]]'s vast Turbine Hall, delaying acceptance for five to six months until she was confident she could conceive of a work to fill the space.<ref name=Barber2005 /> Throughout the latter half of September 2005 and mid-way through October her work ''Embankment'' was installed and was made public on 10 October.

It consists of some 14,000 translucent, white [[polyethylene]] boxes (themselves casts of the inside of cardboard boxes) stacked in various ways; some in very tall mountain-like peaks and others in lower (though still over human height), rectangular, more leveled arrangements. They are fixed in position with an adhesive. She cited the end scenes of both ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' and ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' as visual precursors; she also spoke of the death of her mother and a period of upheaval which involved packing and moving comparable boxes.<ref>''[[The Culture Show]]'', [[BBC Two|BBC2]], 13 October 2005</ref>

It is also thought that her recent trip to the [[Arctic]] is an inspiration, although critics counter that white is merely the colour the polyethylene comes in, and it would have added significantly to the expense to dye them.  The boxes were manufactured from casts of ten plain cardboard boxes by a company that produces grit bins and traffic bollards.<ref name=Barber2005 />

The critical response included:
<blockquote>
"With this work Whiteread has deepened her game, and made a work as rich and subtle as it is spectacular. Whatever else it is, Embankment is generous and brave, a statement of intent."<ref>Searle, Adrian. "[https://www.theguardian.com/arts/features/story/0,11710,1589338,00.html A view of a mind at work]". ''The Guardian'', 11 October 2005. Retrieved on 28 March 2007.</ref>

</blockquote>
: — [[Adrian Searle]], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 11 October 2005.

<blockquote>
"Everything feels surprisingly domestic in scale, the intimidating vistas of the Turbine Hall shrunk down to irregular paths and byways. From atop the walkway, it looks like a storage depot that is steadily losing the plot; from inside, as you thread your way between the mounds of blocks, it feels more like an icy maze."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2005/10/10/block_by_block.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Block by block | access-date=22 May 2010 | date=19 August 2008}}</ref>
</blockquote>
: — Andrew Dickson, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 10 October 2005.

<blockquote>
"This is another example of meritless gigantism that could be anywhere, and is the least successful of the gallery's six attempts to exploit its most unsympathetic space,"<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/arts/articulate/200510/s1479726.htm Evening Standard, quoted in ABC news]{{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (Australia)</ref>
</blockquote>
: — [[Brian Sewell]], ''[[London Evening Standard]]'', October 2005.

<blockquote>
"[looks] like a random pile of giant sugar cubes [...] Luckily, the £400,000 sponsored work is recyclable."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16232574&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=unveiled--tate-s-new-art--14-000-white-boxes--name_page.html|title=UNVEILED: TATE'S NEW ART..14,000 WHITE BOXES|first=Stephen|last=Moyes|website=[[Daily Mirror]] |date=11 October 2005}}</ref>
</blockquote>
: — Stephen Moyes, ''[[Daily Mirror]]'', 11 October 2005.

===''Charity Box'' (2007)===

Whiteread created this small, plaster sculpture for a charity auction by the Prior Weston PTA, in support of the Prior Weston primary school in [[Islington]], London.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2072960,00.html | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Charlotte | last=Higgins | title=What am I bid for this priceless piece one of our Britart parents knocked up? | date=5 May 2007}}</ref><ref>[http://www.priorwestonpta.com/auction/items/PriorWestonAP_07_web.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711050755/http://www.priorwestonpta.com/auction/items/PriorWestonAP_07_web.pdf|date=11 July 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.charity-box.co.uk/ |title=Rachel Whiteread |publisher=Charity Box |date=16 January 2008 |access-date=4 May 2013}}</ref>

The piece measures, a comparatively tiny, 16&nbsp;cm x 11.5&nbsp;cm x 11.5&nbsp;cm.

===''Angel of the South'' (2008)===
She was one of the five artists shortlisted for the [[Angel of the South]] project in January 2008.

===''The Gran Boathouse'' (2010)===
''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130417231525/http://www.skulpturstopp.no/en/gran The Gran Boathouse]'' is located on the waters edge in Gran [[Norway]]. From a distance, it looks like any other boathouse, but closer inspection reveals that this is a work of art in concrete. The work is a cast of the interior of an old boathouse. Whiteread turns the boathouse inside out thereby capturing a moment in time. In this way, she encourages us to reflect on what we see around us. "I have mummified the air inside the boathouse," says Rachel Whiteread. "I wanted to make a shy sculpture, a sculpture that would stand there peaceful and noble." The boathouse and its interior had all the qualities that she was looking for. It represented the history of the place. The sculpture is preserving what would otherwise have been lost.

=== Rachel Whiteread Drawings (2010) ===
The Hammer Museum exhibited Whiteread's first museum retrospective of works on paper in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rachel Whiteread Drawings {{!}} Hammer Museum|url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2010/rachel-whiteread-drawings|access-date=2021-09-30|website=hammer.ucla.edu|date=31 January 2010 |language=en}}</ref> The exhibition traveled to the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Tate Britain.

===Work since 2012===
Cast from generic wooden sheds, ''Detached 1'', ''Detached 2'', and ''Detached 3'' (2012) render the empty interior of a garden shed in concrete and steel. ''Circa 1665 (I)'' (2012), ''LOOK, LOOK, LOOK'' (2012) and ''Loom'' (2012) belong to a series cast from doors and windows in shades of rose, eau-de-nil, or steely resin. Propped against or affixed to walls, the sculptures glow with absorbed and reflected light.<ref name="gagosian.com">[http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/rachel-whiteread--april-11-2013 Rachel Whiteread: Detached, April 11 - May 25, 2013] [[Gagosian Gallery]], London.</ref>

Other works like ''Untitled (Amber)'' (2012) and ''Untitled (Green)'' (2012) are diminutive cardboard constructions mounted on graphite-marked notepaper, painted with silver leaf and complete with celluloid "windows" that refer to the resin sculptures.<ref name="gagosian.com"/>

===''Cabin'' (2016)===
''Cabin'' is a concrete reverse cast of a wooden shed. It has been located on Discovery Hill on [[Governors Island]] in New York Harbour since 2016.<ref name="Ina Cole"/> Whiteread uses this idea in order to produce a negative space that had existed but no longer does. Since ''Cabin'' is away from the noisy city, it creates a peaceful scene and a quiet sense. ''Cabin'' is said to be her first public commission in the United States that is installed permanently on the island.<ref name=LAug>{{cite web |url=https://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/rachel-whiteread|title=Rachel Whiteread's public sculptures|year=2016|access-date=5 June 2018|work=Luhring Augustine}}</ref>
With this work, Whiteread wanted to "blur the notion of space even further by allowing the booming nature of the park to and hide the installation." Therefore, even though the city that is so advanced with technology and is polluted by gasoline, "nature is still present."<ref name=Sleek>{{cite web |url=http://www.sleek-mag.com/2016/08/03/rachel-whitereads-cabin-newyork/ |title=Rachel Whiteread Unveils ''Cabin'' sculpture in New York|year=2016|access-date=5 June 2018|work=Sleek}}</ref>
<blockquote>
"What an extraordinary site, and what an honor to be asked to put something there," Whiteread states. 'I tried to imagine what one could sit there with some kind of dignity, to create a place of remembrance." She would like "to make a piece that was evocative without wanting to make a memorial to the World Trade Center."
</blockquote>
:- Rachel Whiteread<ref name=CBurns>{{cite web |author=Charlotte Burns|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jun/21/rachel-whiteread-cabin-governors-island |title=Rachel Whiteread: 'It's my mission to make things more complicated' |date=21 June 2016|access-date=5 June 2018|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

==Other commissions==
In 2023, Whiteread created a 31 feet tall [[Christmas tree]] covered by 102 circular neon white hoops for Carlos Place outside [[The Connaught (hotel)|The Connaught]] hotel in London's [[Mayfair]] district which commissioned the piece.<ref>[https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/11/29/rachel-whitereads-christmas-tree-lights-up-mayfair Rachel Whiteread’s Christmas tree lights up Mayfair] ''[[The Art Newspaper]]'', 29 November 2023.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |editor-last=Bradley |editor-first=Fiona |title=Rachel Whiteread: Shedding Life |year=1997 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |isbn=0-500-27936-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Mullins |first=Charlotte |title=Tate Modern Artists: Rachel Whiteread |year=2004 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-1-85437-519-3}}
* Cole, Ina, ''From the Sculptor’s Studio'' (London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2021, conversation with Rachel Whiteread, held in 2003 and 2020, page 244-255) {{ISBN|9781913947590}} {{OCLC|1420954826}}.

==External links==
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=no|wikititle=Rachel Whiteread}}

* [http://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/rachel-whiteread Luhring Augustine website]
* [https://www.gagosian.com/artists/rachel-whiteread Gagosian website]

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{{Young British Artists}}

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[[Category:1963 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century English sculptors]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Brighton]]
[[Category:Artists from the London Borough of Redbridge]]
[[Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:English contemporary artists]]
[[Category:English women sculptors]]
[[Category:People from Ilford]]
[[Category:Sculptors from London]]
[[Category:Turner Prize winners]]
[[Category:Young British Artists]]
[[Category:21st-century English sculptors]]
[[Category:20th-century British women artists]]
[[Category:21st-century English women artists]]