Open Playpen 1987

This is Robert Gober's 'Open Playpen', and he made it from wood and paint. I love the way Gober transforms familiar objects, nudging them into uncanny territory. Here, the pale, almost sickly, color flattens the object, diminishing depth, so it almost looks like a 2D rendering of a 3D object. It's all so pristine; the wooden slats are evenly spaced, and each surface is smoothly painted. The color is so uniform that I can’t see any brushstrokes or any trace of the hand, which seems intentional and unsettling. What do you think about the choice of materials? It has the effect of making something comforting into something sterile, and turns something familiar into something alien. It reminds me of the work of Charles Ray, where hyper-realism is used to create a sense of disquiet. Ultimately, it feels less like a functional object and more like a sculpture or readymade, like a Duchamp, prompting us to question what is real, what is fake, and where do we find meaning.