Untitled
Robert Gober
Robert Gober is an artist best known for his seemingly commonplace sculptures and installations that often employ familiar objects and imagery to produce enigmatic scenes or situations. Gober relies on common visual cues—ordinary household objects, for the most part, along with representations of parts of the human body—to produce a rhetorical language of images that not only conveys aspects of his own personality and experiences, but also attempts to reveal greater truths about the human condition. Gober’s work inspires questions; a viewer before this drawing might ask, just what does a drain mean? What role does a drain serve? What about a barred window? How are these images related? What narratives do they expose? Though the images and objects Gober presents can recall universal meanings or impressions, those meanings refuse to stay fixed; instead, the specific relationships between familiar things are made strange.
Untitled, a drawing in graphite from 1993, depicts a circular drain, seen at a slightly oblique perspective, and a view of a square, barred window. The window, set into a heavy, thick wall and drawn from below, lets light into the composition, but it is surrounded by dark, sketchy marks that identify the outlines of a half drawn, ambiguous room. Though their meanings are not readily apparent, the images in Untitled feel weighty in significance. Barred windows are usually filled with negative connotations, often suggesting some form of entrapment, fear, guilt, hopelessness, or isolation. This barred window may represent keeping something enclosed, trapped on the inside, or it might present something on the outside, struggling to be let in. As viewers, it is not clear whether we are inside a room looking out or outside the room looking in, and the ambiguity of the scene may suggest feelings of alienation. As a gay man who grew up in a Catholic home and was deeply affected by the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, Gober may be expressing his own feelings of entrapment within this drawing. For Gober, the barred window may signify fear, guilt, loneliness, and keeping feelings locked up, with no chance for escape.
The drain below is also a curious image, for, like the window, it presents a barrier: we cannot see what lies beneath. It suggests never-ending darkness, leading to a place unknown, yet again like the window, it is an opening. The drain lets fluids in, taking them on an unknown journey. In form, the drain looks open for reception, but the cross-shaped form within—which itself could be an allusion to Gober’s Catholic upbringing—keeps larger objects out, making the drain more solid and less permeable. Still, the drain seems more accommodating and receptive than the grated window, whose surrounding chaotic darkness makes it appear somewhat solid and forbidding. Suggestions of penetration, whether frustrated or otherwise, along with the implied movement of fluids, make Untitled resonate on a sexual level. The drain and window could resemble male and female parts, the drain representing an obvious connection to the female and the barred window a more enigmatic relationship to the male. In creating works that provoke emotions about sexuality, Gober could be providing a response to his religion and sexuality, and to societal constraints.
Sinks and drains have been a large part of Gober’s visual repertoire since the 1980s. Indeed, the body of work that first brought Robert Gober to critical attention in 1983 was a series hand-sculpted sinks devoid of either drains or faucets. A show at Paula Cooper Gallery in 1989 marked the debut in his work of pewter casts of drains embedded into gallery walls, but Gober did not combine sinks with drains until he began work for his 1992 installation at the Dia Center for the Arts, the project that this drawing is related to. The Dia installation—which, like Untitled, dealt with issues of entrapment and escape, and confusion between inside and outside environments—was the first time that Gober presented sinks that were fully functional, even to the point of beautiful excess. The installation was an all-encompassing experience, with eight sinks channeling abundantly flowing water, an elaborate forest scene painted over every inch of the gallery, and barred prison windows set high in the walls. Covered in a lush outdoor scene, the painted walls conveyed a sense of freedom associated with the outdoors, which was immediately disjointed by the inclusion of barred windows, creating an unsettling yet seductive space. Through his installations, sculptures, and drawings, Robert Gober continues to rework these thoughts and emotions. He blurs the lines between bodies and objects, interior and exterior spaces, entrapment and freedom, and ultimately raises the question, from what, exactly, are we trying to escape?
Meredith Mowder
Skidmore College, Class of 2008
Untitled, a drawing in graphite from 1993, depicts a circular drain, seen at a slightly oblique perspective, and a view of a square, barred window. The window, set into a heavy, thick wall and drawn from below, lets light into the composition, but it is surrounded by dark, sketchy marks that identify the outlines of a half drawn, ambiguous room. Though their meanings are not readily apparent, the images in Untitled feel weighty in significance. Barred windows are usually filled with negative connotations, often suggesting some form of entrapment, fear, guilt, hopelessness, or isolation. This barred window may represent keeping something enclosed, trapped on the inside, or it might present something on the outside, struggling to be let in. As viewers, it is not clear whether we are inside a room looking out or outside the room looking in, and the ambiguity of the scene may suggest feelings of alienation. As a gay man who grew up in a Catholic home and was deeply affected by the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, Gober may be expressing his own feelings of entrapment within this drawing. For Gober, the barred window may signify fear, guilt, loneliness, and keeping feelings locked up, with no chance for escape.
The drain below is also a curious image, for, like the window, it presents a barrier: we cannot see what lies beneath. It suggests never-ending darkness, leading to a place unknown, yet again like the window, it is an opening. The drain lets fluids in, taking them on an unknown journey. In form, the drain looks open for reception, but the cross-shaped form within—which itself could be an allusion to Gober’s Catholic upbringing—keeps larger objects out, making the drain more solid and less permeable. Still, the drain seems more accommodating and receptive than the grated window, whose surrounding chaotic darkness makes it appear somewhat solid and forbidding. Suggestions of penetration, whether frustrated or otherwise, along with the implied movement of fluids, make Untitled resonate on a sexual level. The drain and window could resemble male and female parts, the drain representing an obvious connection to the female and the barred window a more enigmatic relationship to the male. In creating works that provoke emotions about sexuality, Gober could be providing a response to his religion and sexuality, and to societal constraints.
Sinks and drains have been a large part of Gober’s visual repertoire since the 1980s. Indeed, the body of work that first brought Robert Gober to critical attention in 1983 was a series hand-sculpted sinks devoid of either drains or faucets. A show at Paula Cooper Gallery in 1989 marked the debut in his work of pewter casts of drains embedded into gallery walls, but Gober did not combine sinks with drains until he began work for his 1992 installation at the Dia Center for the Arts, the project that this drawing is related to. The Dia installation—which, like Untitled, dealt with issues of entrapment and escape, and confusion between inside and outside environments—was the first time that Gober presented sinks that were fully functional, even to the point of beautiful excess. The installation was an all-encompassing experience, with eight sinks channeling abundantly flowing water, an elaborate forest scene painted over every inch of the gallery, and barred prison windows set high in the walls. Covered in a lush outdoor scene, the painted walls conveyed a sense of freedom associated with the outdoors, which was immediately disjointed by the inclusion of barred windows, creating an unsettling yet seductive space. Through his installations, sculptures, and drawings, Robert Gober continues to rework these thoughts and emotions. He blurs the lines between bodies and objects, interior and exterior spaces, entrapment and freedom, and ultimately raises the question, from what, exactly, are we trying to escape?
Meredith Mowder
Skidmore College, Class of 2008