The British artist Rachel Whiteread is currently showing a solo exhibition at the Belvedere 21 in Vienna, Austria. The exhibition has travelled from Tate Modern in London and has been curated by Anne Gallagher and in Vienna by Harald Krejci.

Whiteread is one of the most renowned female contemporary artists working today and was the first woman to win the Turner Prize in 1993, annually awarded by Tate Gallery to an outstanding artist living or working in Great Britain.

In her work she deals with her childhood and relationship to her mother allowing references to Louise Bourgeois manifested in one of her works on display in Vienna named Contents, 2005 showing concrete casts of paper boxes used for storage, created to overcome her mother’s death being confronted with objects left behind from their childhood and belongings of their mother.

As well engaging in politics Rachel Witheread has been commissioned to create the Holocaust memorial, commemorating  Austrian Jewish victims inaugurated in the year 2000, to be found on the Viennese square Judenplatz in  Austria.

In London she is famous for her intervention House, 1993 filling an entire house  with concrete, due to real estate companies investing in London’s quarter East End, mainly inhabited by artists and their studios, leading to increase in rents and demolishing of low cost housing space. The concrete cast with all its facets remained as a protest against marginalisation of the socially deprived.

Witheread’s intention of Untitled (Room 101), 2003 was to draw attention to the former BBC broadcasting house and a warning about totalitarianism and the way news broadcasts can influence the public drawing as well attention to the important role of journalism in our day-to-day life.

The often monumental scale of her installations can also be seen from an architectonical viewpoint to be recognised as over-dimensional maquettes serving as a reference to existing buildings and their inherent historical association to be recalled in today’s society.

The exhibition is on view until 29th of July 2018 an artist talk with Rachel Whiteread and Ann Gallagher, curator of the original exhibition at Tate Modern in London takes place on 6th June 2018 starting from 6.00 p.m. until 7.00 p.m.

The exhibition is definitely worth a visit, take your time to experience it entirely as it is full of small details!

All my best,

Daniela Haberz, M.A.
Curator and Art Critic of AØH Art Consultancy Haberz

Contact exhibition space:
Belvedere 21, Arsenalstrasse 1, 1030 Vienna
Tel: +43 (0) 1 79 557
Web: http://www.belvedere21.at
Opening hours:
Wed.-Sun. 11.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m.; Wed. & Fri. until 9.00 p.m.

Credits:
All photographs by Daniela Haberz, M.A. for AØH Art Consultancy Haberz, E.u.
All works by Rachel Whiteread