Dimensions: image: 400 x 660 mm
Copyright: © 2000, Robert Gober and Gemini G.E.L. LLC | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: We’re looking at Robert Gober’s "Untitled" print from the Tate Modern. It features a hand holding a drain, set against horizontal lines. The starkness of the drawing gives it a somewhat unsettling feel. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I am struck by the formal arrangement. The hand, meticulously rendered, presents the drain as a focal point. The lines in the background act as a grid, a structuring element that flattens the space and emphasizes the objecthood of the image itself. Consider how the stark black and white enhances this effect. Editor: So you're focusing on the lines and the contrast? Curator: Precisely. These formal elements invite us to consider the artwork as a construction, a deliberate arrangement of form, line and object. What do you make of the object itself? Editor: That’s helpful. I’ll pay closer attention to the relationship between the hand and the drain as a formal element.
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The drain has been a recurring theme in Gober’s work. In a 1990 interview, he said: ‘I thought of the drains as metaphors functioning in the same way as traditional paintings, as a window into another world. However, the world that you enter into through the metaphor of the drain would be something darker and unknown.’ Gallery label, August 2024
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