Video Description: Over three decades Rachel Whiteread has made a career out of capturing the negative space, the space between and inside everyday objects. Her first sculptures were a matter of practicality – furniture and domestic items like hot water bottles which could be easily moved and manipulated with a minimum of manpower. Then in 1990 a house in North London faced demolition and she decided to cast the inside of one of the rooms. She worked in sections, capturing the walls and ceiling separately and then assembling them together on a metal frame to produce “Ghost.” In 1993, Whiteread expanded in scale to include an entire house, creating her most well-known and rather controversial piece. “House” remains memorialized in a photo series currently available to see at the Saint Louis Art Museum, along with many other more portable examples of Whiteread’s work in the major retrospective of the artist’s 30-year career.

• Use the video in conjunction with an activity that has students creating cast sculpture focused on capturing the negative space.
• Use the video as part of your art history study. Have students heard of Rachel Whiteread previously? Have them learn more about her and her work.