28
Robert Gober
Rat Bait
- Estimate
- £80,000 - 120,000‡
£125,000
Lot Details
cast plaster with casein and silkscreen ink
signed, titled, numbered and dated 'Robert Gober "RAT BAIT" ED. 8/10 1992' on the reverse
23.2 x 15.7 x 5.1 cm (9 1/8 x 6 1/8 x 2 in.)
Executed in 1992, this work is number 8 from an edition of 10.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
A hand crafted sculpture that seeks to replicate everyday objects, Robert Gober’s Rat Bait, 1992, encapsulates the artist’s divergent processes of articulating the fundamental differences between mass produced manufactured objects and hand crafted artworks. Exclusively created for the artist’s installation at the DIA Center for the Arts in New York, another from the edition of 10 sits in the esteemed collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. A complex work in Gober’s creative output, the work is a reflective example from his analytic body of contemporary sculpture.
Championing a return to figurative art, Robert Gober is one of the most recognised artists to emerge from New York in the 1980s. Exploring the banalities of life, Gober’s work takes the form of sculptural installations based on common objects to question the domesticity of the day-to-day, reflecting on the ready-made objects of Conceptual art pioneer Marcel Duchamp. Rendering facsimile sculptures of existing forms, Gober establishes a complex visual vocabulary between the surreal and the commonplace, projecting his imagination onto prevailing objects.
Though Rat Bait appears to be an appropriated object, a box of rat poison, it is in fact laboriously handmade with wax, plaster and paint; the artist adeptly casts, moulds, pours and forms every element of his sculptures. This work plays on Gober’s desire to arouse a sense of recognition or familiarity in the viewer, presenting the common object within a different context, altered in scale, colour and material. Rat Bait’s uncanny familiarity is disturbing and intriguing, its ready-made appearance reflecting Gober’s continuous interest in simulating reality.
Ritualising everyday life, Rat Bait belongs to a body of sculptural works by an artist who has consistently presented our daily habits and rituals back to us, teaching us about ourselves and the world we inhabit. Gober’s insistence on recreating reality rather than using pre-existing forms transports his art toward a more psychological and emotive discussion.
Championing a return to figurative art, Robert Gober is one of the most recognised artists to emerge from New York in the 1980s. Exploring the banalities of life, Gober’s work takes the form of sculptural installations based on common objects to question the domesticity of the day-to-day, reflecting on the ready-made objects of Conceptual art pioneer Marcel Duchamp. Rendering facsimile sculptures of existing forms, Gober establishes a complex visual vocabulary between the surreal and the commonplace, projecting his imagination onto prevailing objects.
Though Rat Bait appears to be an appropriated object, a box of rat poison, it is in fact laboriously handmade with wax, plaster and paint; the artist adeptly casts, moulds, pours and forms every element of his sculptures. This work plays on Gober’s desire to arouse a sense of recognition or familiarity in the viewer, presenting the common object within a different context, altered in scale, colour and material. Rat Bait’s uncanny familiarity is disturbing and intriguing, its ready-made appearance reflecting Gober’s continuous interest in simulating reality.
Ritualising everyday life, Rat Bait belongs to a body of sculptural works by an artist who has consistently presented our daily habits and rituals back to us, teaching us about ourselves and the world we inhabit. Gober’s insistence on recreating reality rather than using pre-existing forms transports his art toward a more psychological and emotive discussion.
Provenance
Exhibited
Literature