Untitled 1987

Editor: This is an Untitled piece by Doris Salcedo. It's made from steel and what looks like old hospital beds, and it strikes me as a memorial, but to what, I wonder? How do you interpret this work? Curator: It feels to me like a graveyard of lost innocence, a skeletal architecture of sleep. The cold steel and the ghostly remnants of beds evoke a sense of absence, loss. Can't you almost hear the echoes of children's laughter? Editor: Yes, now that you mention it, there's a poignant contrast between the structure's rigidity and the vulnerability suggested by the bed frames. So, it’s about memory, but painful memory? Curator: Perhaps. Salcedo often explores themes of trauma and displacement. This piece seems to wrestle with the lingering scars of those experiences, doesn't it? Leaving you with a lingering ache. Editor: I never thought about it that way. The steel feels very heavy now. Thanks for pointing that out!