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Lot Essay
Through his depiction of seemingly mundane objects such as a sink, crib, chair, along with isolated body parts, American artist Robert Gober explores themes of family, religion, sexuality, alienation and memory, both collective and private. With painstaking and meticulous detail he renders these thought-provoking sculptures by hand to build a universe that investigates the psychological and symbolic power of the objects in our everyday lives. In Gober's 1992 work, Untitled, the artist creates an off-white wax shoe with actual human hair placed within the sole. An engaging and haunting work in Gober’s oeuvre, Untitled creates a sense of unease and discomfort within the viewer.
In the present lot, Gober presents a single shoe created out of wax and hair. The shoe, which is small and child-sized is off-white and is a t-strap style which evokes the costume of a young girl. However, instead of conjuring a sense of innocence, the work becomes ominous and eerie. The color of the shoe underscores the disturbing nature—the purity that the color white typically signifies is here mottled slightly and given a sickly, pallid cast. The human hair adhered to the sole is disquieting and unsettling. The delicate and smoothness of the wax surface is interrupted by the harsh and rough black hair, creating a visual interruption in the work. The solitary nature of the shoe lends an extra strangeness to its aura. What has happened to the other shoe in the pair? The absence of the second shoe alludes to a sinister history.
A lasting theme in Gober's work is the appropriation and reconfiguring of simple everyday objects in a way that highlights their hidden symbolism. Another such depiction is Gober's, Untitled, 1993 which depicts a chrome-plated bronze drain. The work appears initially to be a ready-made, but it is in fact painstakingly forged to resemble Gober's idealized vision of a drain, one that he felt carried a peculiar psychological and emotional charge. The symbolic power of the drain is invested with a complex array of ideas relating to the human body, which attenuates its domestic role as a filter or portal. Similarly to the drain, Gober uses the imagery of a shoe in Untitled, which presents a protective covering or vehicle for safe movement. A shield from outside elements, shoes present protective barriers. In Gober's typical fashion, he takes this imagery associated with shoes and transmutes it to an experience in which the viewer questions his or her own association and relationship to the object.
If looked at ontologically, Gober's work can be said to have a goal of identifying the line between comfort and uncertainty in the ordinary things that are our anchors. In addition, the artist succeeds in creating a physical, parallel world that exists alongside the real one: "On first encounter, the perceived situation of Gober's work is always ablaze with the signifiers of high Modernism: the pristine rooms, the privative objects, the exquisite craft and refined sense of placement, the subtle evocations of Duchamp and Magritte, Artschwager and Judd. Ultimately, however, all of this nuance and evocation takes on the coppery taste of bitter irony, as Gober (after generations of artists exploring the stuff of their lives in service of this tradition) exploits the stuff of this tradition in the service of his life; further, I think, we might consider Gober's project as evocative of his own generation, exploiting in a radical way the apparently reduced options left open to it" (D. Hickey, as quoted in Robert Gober, Dia Center for the Arts, 1993, pp. 54-55).
“Somewhere there’s a little girl without a shoe. Well, it probably came out of the garbage. Somebody had probably thrown two away, and they got scattered–rather than some little girl being swept off her feet so that the shoe was left behind. It was a symbol of loss to me” (R.Gober in an interview with Richard Flood, “Interview 3: January 23-24, 1997,” Robert Gober: Sculpture and Drawing, Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, 1999, p. 133).
In the present lot, Gober presents a single shoe created out of wax and hair. The shoe, which is small and child-sized is off-white and is a t-strap style which evokes the costume of a young girl. However, instead of conjuring a sense of innocence, the work becomes ominous and eerie. The color of the shoe underscores the disturbing nature—the purity that the color white typically signifies is here mottled slightly and given a sickly, pallid cast. The human hair adhered to the sole is disquieting and unsettling. The delicate and smoothness of the wax surface is interrupted by the harsh and rough black hair, creating a visual interruption in the work. The solitary nature of the shoe lends an extra strangeness to its aura. What has happened to the other shoe in the pair? The absence of the second shoe alludes to a sinister history.
A lasting theme in Gober's work is the appropriation and reconfiguring of simple everyday objects in a way that highlights their hidden symbolism. Another such depiction is Gober's, Untitled, 1993 which depicts a chrome-plated bronze drain. The work appears initially to be a ready-made, but it is in fact painstakingly forged to resemble Gober's idealized vision of a drain, one that he felt carried a peculiar psychological and emotional charge. The symbolic power of the drain is invested with a complex array of ideas relating to the human body, which attenuates its domestic role as a filter or portal. Similarly to the drain, Gober uses the imagery of a shoe in Untitled, which presents a protective covering or vehicle for safe movement. A shield from outside elements, shoes present protective barriers. In Gober's typical fashion, he takes this imagery associated with shoes and transmutes it to an experience in which the viewer questions his or her own association and relationship to the object.
If looked at ontologically, Gober's work can be said to have a goal of identifying the line between comfort and uncertainty in the ordinary things that are our anchors. In addition, the artist succeeds in creating a physical, parallel world that exists alongside the real one: "On first encounter, the perceived situation of Gober's work is always ablaze with the signifiers of high Modernism: the pristine rooms, the privative objects, the exquisite craft and refined sense of placement, the subtle evocations of Duchamp and Magritte, Artschwager and Judd. Ultimately, however, all of this nuance and evocation takes on the coppery taste of bitter irony, as Gober (after generations of artists exploring the stuff of their lives in service of this tradition) exploits the stuff of this tradition in the service of his life; further, I think, we might consider Gober's project as evocative of his own generation, exploiting in a radical way the apparently reduced options left open to it" (D. Hickey, as quoted in Robert Gober, Dia Center for the Arts, 1993, pp. 54-55).
“Somewhere there’s a little girl without a shoe. Well, it probably came out of the garbage. Somebody had probably thrown two away, and they got scattered–rather than some little girl being swept off her feet so that the shoe was left behind. It was a symbol of loss to me” (R.Gober in an interview with Richard Flood, “Interview 3: January 23-24, 1997,” Robert Gober: Sculpture and Drawing, Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, 1999, p. 133).