Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Wardrobe), 1994, plaster and glass, 180 x 125 x 46 cm.
Surprisingly, this is the first survey in London of Rachel Whiteread’s work, and the semi-pastoral setting of the Serpentine in Kensington Gardens provides a near-perfect venue. The fourteen-piece retrospective—ranging from 1988’s Shallow Breath to two substantial sculptures realized this year, including a cast-iron floor piece—emphasizes the formal, “minimalist” containment of Whiteread’s casts rather than their petrified histories and content. Curated by Lisa Corrin of the Serpentine and Patrick Elliott of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, the show is opening on the heels of the pouring of Whiteread’s long-awaited inverted-plinth sculpture in Trafalgar Square.
