House 1993

Rachel Whiteread's "House" involved casting the interior of a terraced house in London in 1993, resulting in a ghostly concrete replica. The work's imposing structure, stark planes, and muted color evoke feelings of absence. The artist employed negative space to invert the relationship between exterior and interior, public and private. The use of concrete—a material usually associated with foundations and permanence—creates a paradox here as the sculpture captures the ephemeral qualities of domestic life. The original house's architectural details like doors, windows, and fireplaces have become impressions in the concrete, highlighting the structure’s rigid geometry. The composition challenges conventional notions of sculpture. Whiteread’s work invites us to reconsider architecture as a framework of social and personal memory. The solid form of the cast disrupts our understanding of space, questioning the very nature of what is present and what is missing.