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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
At Goodwood, Rachel Whiteread Is Redefining Sculpture Parks
Rachel Whiteread is used to her work provoking strong reactions. The 62-year-old artist won the Turner Prize in 1993 for her landmark sculpture,'House', a plaster cast of the inside of a Victorian terraced house in east London. Less than four months later, despite a public campaign to save it, it was torn down by Tower Hamlets Council. In 1996, her plans for a Holocaust memorial in Judenplatz, Vienna — a room constructed from casts of shelves lined with books, their spines turned inwards — created a political furore. On that one, sense prevailed, and it still stands. This summer, Whiteread, who was made a dame in 2019, will be the inaugural artist to have a solo show at Goodwood Art Foundation, a new sculpture park and gallery on the grounds of the Goodwood Estate in Sussex. Already, she has met with some local opposition. 'You make a decision about where something's going, and then suddenly a badger's moved in, or there's a squirrel in the way,' she says, sitting in her airy studio in Camden, north London, close to where she lives with her husband, the artist Marcus Taylor, with whom she has two sons. 'So there's been a bit of that going on,' she continues, 'but, having an enormous respect for nature, that's quite all right.' For an artist who's often associated with urban settings, Whiteread, who has clouds of soft curls and a friendly but no-nonsense manner, does have an unexpected interest in the bucolic. She was born in Ilford and went to school in London, then Brighton University and the Slade, but growing up she and her sisters were 'dragged all over the country' by her artist mother and geographer father. The idea of interacting with natural landscapes is 'definitely in me from my family', she says, and over the years she has produced a number of what she calls 'shy sculptures' — tucked-away installations that you might journey to, or happen upon: a cast of a boathouse on a Norwegian fjord; another of a wooden house in Kunisaki, Japan; the concrete ghost of a cabin on Governors Island in New York. At Goodwood Art Foundation, within grounds recently spruced up by garden designer extraordinaire Dan Pearson, she'll be exhibiting existing pieces including 'Detached II (2012)", a cast of a garden shed, and "Untitled (Pair) (1999)', twin tomb-like sculptures based on mortuary slabs, alongside a new work, 'Down and Up (2024-2025)', cast from the staircase of the former synagogue in which she and Taylor and the boys used to live in London's East End. 'When I made 'House', one of the things that really frustrated me was that I didn't really cast the staircase,' she says. 'I had to cut it away and cast around it, so the wooden part of the staircase was always left. It's hard to cast a staircase generally, because people are using it, but when we moved to Shoreditch there were two or three staircases in the building, so I cast them.' In the Goodwood Art Foundation's new indoor space, the Pavilion Gallery, she'll be showing photographs, too; she's always taken pictures, using them as a kind of sketchbook, but has shown them in public only rarely. Grouped in threes, they capture haphazard, quasi-sculptural compositions that have caught her eye: a flattened traffic cone; an unusual storm drain; a ring of oxidation on a tiled floor. They're intriguing, and often quietly absurd. Whiteread pulls out a photograph of a black rubbish bag that she spotted recently, strung up on the iron railings of a London townhouse. There's a small rip at the bottom, through which is visible a pair of perfect eggs. 'And there was not a single crack in them!' she says, delighted. When we meet, she's still a few weeks from installing the new show — which, as you might imagine, involves some serious haulage vehicles and some very big boxes — but the plan for it is very much in place: 'We're in the end game,' she says. Whiteread has, in the two-and-a-half year run-up, been able to enjoy some of Goodwood's other offerings, including its annual motoring event, Goodwood Festival of Speed, which, she says, was, 'very noisy, very smelly, but it was definitely interesting to sit in the VIP enclosure where the cars do those — whatever they do — weird turns in front of you. And the boys got to sit in these vintage F1 cars. It was good fun.' She says she has been warmly welcomed by Goodwood's owner, the Duke of Richmond ('very, very nice, and so is his wife, and actually the Duke's a very good photographer'), though rural idylls are not, apparently, Whiteread's spiritual home. She has a place in Wales that she's soon going to visit and 'de-mouse', but eventually the city always calls her back. 'I love the countryside, but after a while I'm banging my head against a tree — I need some grot!' Other cities are summoning her, too: in the next couple of years she'll have a show in Brussels, and will be installing pieces in Switzerland and Japan. 'I've been fairly consistent,' she says of her working life. 'I'm really very lucky to be able to do what I like doing.' Her oeuvre now involves photography, cast sculptures and also sculptures that are not cast: one of the indoor works at Goodwood Art Foundation will be a constructed piece, 'Doppelganger (2020-2021)', that has been built to look like a white shed being ripped apart. 'The older I've got, the more vocabulary I've got to use, so I'm just playing with that.' Whiteread's work, whatever form it takes, deals with memory, residue, decay and the inexorable passing of time. And it speaks to us. 'People get very moved by things I've made,' she says, matter-of-factly. It's a phenomenon that she finds rewarding. 'If it helps shape people's lives, or helps people deal with something, or think about something, that's a gift I can give. I'm not trying to trigger people, but I know that the work is personal and has a sensitivity to it, and generally these things move people, don't they?' The badgers, however, are staying put. Rachel Whiteread is at Goodwood Art Foundation, Chichester, from 31 May to 2 November; You Might Also Like The Best Men's Sunglasses For Summer '19 There's A Smartwatch For Every Sort Of Guy What You Should Buy For Your Groomsmen (And What They Really Want)
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
From India to Innovation: How the Royal College of Art is Shaping the Next Generation of Creative Leaders
By Dimple Bangalore, current student on the Writing MA at the Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) in London stands as the world's number 1 university for art and design for the 11th year in a row, according to the QS World University Subject Rankings. Founded in 1837, RCA is a postgraduate-only institution that is highly influential in the world of design, art, architecture, communication, and the humanities. The RCA is committed to fostering global talent, which has created a thriving space for Indian students to leverage opportunities available to them there and in London. RCA admits over 150 students from India annually, with a sharp increase year-on-year since the pandemic. To better understand the experience of Indian students, why they chose the RCA, and how it develops their practice, I sat down with four current students from various programmes. Aditi Agarwal, a graduate from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, and a current Communication MFA student at RCA says 'RCA, with its 180 year history, has been highly impactful in graduating people who have gone on to make a change in the real world, so RCA was my first choice because I wanted to be part of that clan making the change rather than experiencing it.' RCA's distinguished alumni have garnered international accolades in various artistic disciplines. Most recently, Jesleen Kaur ( Jewellery & Metal MA , 2010) won the Turner Prize in 2024, and Douglas Stuart ( Fashion MA , 2000) won the Booker Prize in 2020. Pleural, a company started by four Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc graduates, won the 2024 James Dyson Award. Aditi Agarwal and Rutuja Shelke RCA deeply values real-world application and collaboration for its students. Rutuja Shelke, a Communication MFA student and also a Srishti alum, has been most impacted by the opportunities for artistic engagement in the city of London, which has helped her engage a larger set of people while learning from professionals. 'RCA sent out an opportunity to participate in a mural competition. I was so new to London, and had never lived internationally before. I was a bit hesitant, but I decided to participate despite knowing all my peers are also super talented because it's the best school in the world! But when I applied, the project manager, Walter Paice, was so kind and facilitated my learning experience throughout. It led to a pivotal connection with Walter, who works in the arts and design sector and is dedicated to creating opportunities for emerging artists. He invited me to collaborate on a mural project commissioned by the Hammersmith and Fulham Council, for Fulham Cycles, a local cycling shop. This six-week project I completed in February was an intense but rewarding experience. This mural now stands there and interacts with the public, and it feels nice to have done that so soon.' Rutu in the digital print studio Similarly, Shubhangi Pandey from Service Design MA recounts that the opportunity for collaboration during her study at RCA has enabled significant professional and personal growth in a short period. 'My current project at RCA focuses on exploring the male partner's journey during miscarriage, which is a deeply sensitive and often overlooked aspect of healthcare. Studying here has provided me the invaluable opportunity to engage with the National Health Service UK, among other organisations. This platform not only enhances my learning but also empowers me to contribute to impactful, real-world outcomes.' Shubhangi Pandey (centre) and RCA teammates Alice Chapman, Olivia Cederquist, Lucia Perez and Saloni Sehgal, winning first prize at the Zlin Design Week awards Service Design category for their project 'Creative Currents' After graduating from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Shubhangi worked in Microsoft, India, before joining RCA. 'During my tenure at Microsoft, I had the privilege of working across both the Accessibility team and the Responsible AI and Machine Learning team. One of the most meaningful projects I contributed to was Voice Access, which aligned with my values around inclusive design, accessibility, and ethical innovation. This experience inspired me to expand my focus beyond individual design components and develop a broader, systems-oriented perspective. It was this shift that led me to pursue a Master's in Service Design at the Royal College of Art'. Shubhangi selling her book at the RCA Christmas Fair. While speaking about their experiences studying in London, the Indian students I spoke with unanimously felt that the artistic scene, vast number of galleries, and museums, and the openness of other artists and professionals to work alongside RCA students is a positively surprising part of the experience at RCA. Aditi recalls discussing with her parents about London before moving. 'London has much more openness. While working in Mumbai or in Jaipur, I always heard of exciting things happening in the London V&A Museum or in various other museums. London feels like the right space for artists & designers, and a place I could relate to.' While there is immense opportunity to learn and collaborate in London, there is also a large scope for opportunities after graduation. For Shubhangi who already had some work experience, this part of the experience of studying in London stood out: 'The sheer range of opportunities, events, and experiences it offers is remarkable, making it an ideal environment for those who thrive on energy, innovation, and action. From networking and career development to world-class design events, London is highly accessible and deeply connected to other global design hubs, offering unparalleled exposure. It's a city that rewards ambition and initiative' . Tanvi Sankhe at work on her Interior Design masters Coming from the Indian education system, which can sometimes be more focused on functionality and production, Indian students at RCA tend to cherish the interdisciplinary approach and RCA's world-class faculty's focus on critical thinking. Tanvi Sankhe, a current student of Interior Design MA particularly appreciates the opportunity to learn from her diverse and talented peers within and outside her program. 'One of the most varied and imaginatively stimulating groups I have ever dealt with is my cohort. Our varied professional and cultural backgrounds lead to incredibly fruitful conversations and cooperative moments. We encourage one another and offer constructive criticism of each other's work, producing a strong sense of community. Through tutorials that frequently resemble thought-provoking discussions, the faculty pushes us to stretch our limits while contributing both professional as well as academic insights. The emphasis is on process, critical thinking, and originality. Collaboration within programs is encouraged, and interior design frequently intersects with digital media, art, and performance, all of which have greatly broadened my viewpoint'. Tanvi receiving her certificate as a recipient of the GREAT Scholarship The RCA-India connection continues to develop and while each year brings a bigger influx of new students, it also results in more members added to the College's global alumni network. If you have bold creative ambitions and a desire to shape your future, the Royal College of Art might just be where your journey continues. You can explore the list of postgraduate programmes offered by the RCA here . Read about how Royal College of Art graduates shone at India Art Fair 2025 Find out about the Royal College of Art graduate exhibition, RCA 2025
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Goodwood Art Foundation: Rachel Whiteread proves simplicity is best
Few things at Goodwood are muted. On this 12,000-acre estate, crowned by that sprawling country house, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon hosts shooting parties, a high-speed hillclimb and a classic-car festival. But seek out, in a corner of his domain, the new Art Foundation, which opens this weekend, and you'll be met by serenity. Glad of it, as well: the selection of contemporary art on display – 14 works, or groups thereof – thrives in these 70 acres of ancient trees and winding paths. The Foundation has two small galleries; a third is in the works. In the larger space is the inaugural headline act: Rachel Whiteread, represented indoors by two sculptural installations and, rare thing, a selection of photographs. Few British artists make work as consistently high-calibre. Whiteread's ability to give form and shape to the traces we leave behind, the absences that build our worlds, hasn't palled since she won the Turner Prize with House in 1993. In the Gallery, she presents Doppelgänger (2020-1), a shed assembled from found materials then painted a uniform white; and Bergamo III (2023), materialisations of the space beneath chairs and stools, cut from north-Italian stone. These pieces hint at struggle and loss – the latter in particular, given Bergamo's experience in the Covid-19 pandemic – but their meaning remains, in Whiteread's familiar way, so beautifully elusive: not quite romantic, not quite sad. Occasionally, she verges on funny. Of all the works at Goodwood, the Instagram star will be one of her outdoor offerings, Down and Up (2024-5), a pair of staircases heading to nowhere, placed at a meadow's edge. The leading role may be Whiteread's, but look for two gems by Veronica Ryan: a pair of bronzes, which give us magnolias in one case as a pod, and in the other as heads in bloom. The subtlety of the metalwork, the fineness of the hues: Ryan's craftsmanship stops you dead. Most of the pieces you encounter here are of comparable quality. That said, small exhibitions expose any weaknesses, and Goodwood has a few. Rose Wylie's pineapple-like sculptures try to be bobbled and daffy while also retaining an edge – exotic fruit means colonial imports; one looks a bit like a bomb – but they don't get the balance right. Isamu Noguchi's geometric stack isn't one of his more interesting works. Still, as at Yorkshire Sculpture Park or Hauser & Wirth's Somerset branch, it's a pleasure not to be jammed in a heaving urban gallery: to wander down woodchip walks and quiet glades, and see art in the open air. Best of all, you don't need a smartphone: just pick up a handsome printed map, less a leaflet than a brochure. (Or even do without one, although the sign by each work omits to name its materials, which most people like to know.) You could call some of these pieces, undemonstrative forms in a natural setting, straightforward – even 'simple', as the Foundation calls its grounds. If so, fine: simplicity can be rich. Whiteread's art is proof of that.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Rachel Whiteread review – leafy woods, glorious views and beautiful, brutal blights
I feel like I've stumbled into a 1970s album cover for the Who or Led Zeppelin that juxtaposes nature and post-industrial malaise. Emerging from woodlands on the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, you see a massive concrete cast of a staircase in a lush green field – a spectacular, surreal collision of urban grit and English pastoral. This is Rachel Whiteread's Down and Up, a brutal intruder in the landscape. Leafy woods and glorious views – I contemplated Down and Up through a veil of rain but was assured you can see down to the sea on a sunny day – create a dramatic setting for her stark sepulchres. In a forest clearing stands another work, Untitled (Pair) – two bone-white rectangular slabs that look like death. That's no accident, for their shallow concave tops were cast from mortuary tables. Alone with this monument, the tall trees standing guard around me, I don't so much ponder mortality as silently scream. House, the famous, lost masterpiece that won Whiteread the 1993 Turner prize, also once stood in the open air, as ungainly and insistent against an east London sky as these remorseless objects look in a much more tranquil context. It was demolished in a culture war that's forgotten now, but Whiteread is no sensationalist. Her art hits you for a moment with harsh modernism, but then – unless you refuse to look and feel, as the local council did – its sombre poetry creeps up on you. Down and Up is cast from an old staircase in a synagogue in Bethnal Green, east London. You can see why these stairs fascinate her: they are curiously narrow and sloped, as if pushed out of shape by multitudes of long-gone feet. Odd, baffling details like this give her art warmth and passion, while the blank masses of cast material, in this case grey concrete, fill it with silence and terror. You can't care about life, her art suggests, without recognising death. She sees ghosts everywhere. Her exhibition launches the Goodwood Art Foundation. In its low-slung, partly glass-walled gallery, Whiteread's eye for decay and loss infects a new series of brightly coloured but emotionally serious photographs. Wherever she goes, in Essex or Italy, Whiteread in these pictures sees the crack in the teacup, the rusty stain on the mosaic floor. She notices bin bags like shrouds, a rotting community centre that refuses to be picturesque. Sometimes their foreboding is a bit false, even descending into bathos. We can all be spooked by crows gathering on a telephone wire and sometimes an abandoned child's toy is just that, however wretched it looks on the doorstep. Yet this is how Whiteread's imagination works: she sees a continuum between everyday melancholia and collective grief. In 2023, she had a show in Bergamo, Italy – which was severely hit by Covid – creating tombstone-like sculptures to mourn the lost. Some are here. Based on casts of the spaces under chairs – a favourite Whiteread motif – they are marked by recesses where legs and struts once were. She aspires to public monuments yet also flees into secret recesses of introspection and memory – which is why a pastoral landscape is such a resonant setting for her art. Two photographs in the gallery show rotting, abandoned places, a shed and a caravan, in each of which someone seems to have lived a hermitic existence, but these shelters rust and rot away, surrendering to weeds. In front of them she recreates this spectacle of solitude and dissolution in her sculpture Doppelgänger, a reconstruction of a smashed, forgotten shack, its broken walls pierced by fallen branches, painted in white emulsion, a ghostly covering that with brilliant simplicity makes reality metamorphosise into art. Outside in the woods, at the end of a long, narrow vista, she has placed a concrete cast of a sealed shed, its windows opaque, its door closed for ever. You feel more and more alone walking around it, trying to find the way in. It is called Detached II. This is a poem to solitude and here in the garden, surrounded by unruly spring growth, it feels as eccentric and lost as the rotting caravan and shack in her photographs. Dissolution and decay are part of nature. They are also part of our lives and time's arrow only points one way. Thoughts like these are not consoling but they feel as if they belong in the woods, like intoxicating mushrooms of melancholy. Whiteread is a great modern artist and her sculptures blight this pastoral, beautifully. Rachel Whiteread's exhibition is at Goodwood Art Foundation from 31 May to 2 November
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Turner Prize judge 'coming home to Scotland' to head up international art festival
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A Shetland-born judge of the prestigious Turner Prize is to head up a major Scottish art festival. Helen Nisbet has been announced as the new director of Glasgow International - Scotland's biennial festival of contemporary art. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Nisbet, who judged the Turner Prize in 2023, will take up the role this summer, ahead of the 11th edition of the festival, which starts on in June next year. Previous director Richard Birkett stepped down in February. Both Ms Nisbet and Mr Birkett are to sit on the panel for the 2026 open call for artists, which closed on May 26. Glasgow International Director Helen Nisbet. Photo: Christa Holka | Glasgow International Ms Nisbet has held key curatorial and leadership positions, including artistic director for Art Night, chief executive and artistic director for Cromwell Place and Curator at Cubitt, as well as holding a role as non-executive director for the Shetland-based artist-led project GAADA. She said: "I'm so happy to be coming home to Scotland as director of Glasgow International. I'm excited to work with, and learn from, the festival team and to be amongst the gorgeous light, energy, artists, communities [and even the rain] in Glasgow again.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Nisbet added: 'Glasgow International is a critical biennial, which represents a diversity of contemporary and cultural practice, and it is a privilege to lead it into its next phase. I bring with me a commitment shaped by years of collaboration with artists, organisers, communities, partners and audiences - locally, nationally, and internationally.' Ms Nisbet's appointment coincides with other key appointments within the festival team, including Pelumi Odubanjo as curator and Martel Ollerenshaw as festival manager. Every two years Glasgow International presents an array of artists' projects across Glasgow by international artists and those based locally. These projects are selected through an open call by an invited panel of international and local artists, curators and producers and the Glasgow International Programme team. Emma Nicolson, Creative Scotland's head of visual arts, said: 'We'd like to congratulate Helen Nisbet on her appointment and look forward to welcoming her back to Scotland. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Glasgow International contributes significantly to the cultural offer of the city and is recognised locally and globally for its vibrant and distinctive programme. Helen brings a wealth of experience to the festival, and we are excited to see how her curatorial vision and commitment to artists and audiences will influence and shape its future direction.'
