Water Tower
Rachel Whiteread
British, born 1963
1998
A life-size rooftop water tank cast in pale translucent resin and mounted on a painted-steel frame, made to monumentalize an ordinary urban object and preserve its presence as an uncanny relic.
Seen on the roof it reads like a ghostly, oversized ice block—its milky surface softly diffusing light while the black industrial cradle and surrounding glass-and-stone skyscrapers sharpen its quiet, solitary presence.
Whiteread extends her practice of casting everyday forms by turning a utilitarian fixture into a quiet monument, asking viewers to reconsider memory, absence, and the sculptural potential of ordinary urban materials.
Medium
Translucent resin and painted steel
Dimensions
12' 2" (370.8 cm) high x 9' (274.3 cm) in diameter
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Freedman Family in memory of Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman
Accession
1260.1999.a-b
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
