Bite 31: Rachel Whiteread - House, 1993

House, 1993, concrete

As a work of art Rachel Whiteread cast in concrete the rooms of a condemned house in the East End of London (where she previously lived). The house, as 193 Grove Road, came to stand as a memorial of domesticity and the passing of time. The space once occupied by the density of life becomes literally dense, a sculptural "multi-faceted monument to the sum of all memories," as journalist Andrew Graham-Dixon puts it. 

The paradoxical work is but the 'ghost' of a house, rendered unusable by its very veneration. It is a sculpture created by out of the absence of things.

With House Whiteread became the first women to win the Turner Prize. It was controversially demolished by the local council in 1994.

Sources:
www.andrewgrahamdixon.com