Rudolf Stingel has recycled the fragments of reflective Celotex insulation panels used to line the walls of his 2007 exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Whitney Museum in New York and cast them in copper, then electroplated the surfaces with gold. Stingel chose this process for its ability to retain the fine surface detail of each fracture and indentation in the panels’ inscribed, poked, and scratched surfaces. The accumulation of marks and traces left by visitors to the exhibitions register time in an extravagant and exaggerated material form. The gold surface of the rectangular fragments references the monochromatic painting of artists such as Yves Klein, for the purpose of transforming material history. Graffiti, often used as source material for painting, is cast, and so, directly transferred. The graffiti is amplified and reified by the gold casting,––the humble elements glorified. Urban and quotidian references, though present, are transformed to create artful gestures. Because of the layers of repeated marking, the panels register as a soft palimpsest of no planned order. Stingel has managed, in his circuitous way, to both subvert and maintain interest in the tropes and methods of painting.

— David Rhodes