Untitled
One of the most important American artists of the last twenty years, Gober works primarily in sculpture, installation, and photography. He is perhaps best known for his delicate and ghostly handcrafted versions of domestic fixtures such as drains, beds, doors, and sinks. Through these uncanny replicas, Gober invests mass-produced objects with personal meaning-the private, unruly desires and memories of the individual. As with many artists of his generation, the personal in Gober's work is inextricably bound up with the political, the sense of unease and trauma that emanates from his domestic doubles alluding to his difficulties growing up as a homosexual within a Catholic middle-class family. It is a testament to his talent that the elements of autobiography in his work do not limit, but rather extend, its largest meanings about the individual and society, memory, religion, and the body.
The drain is one of Gober's central motifs of the last decade. Beginning in the late 1980s, the artist made pewter casts of a drain that he had soldered together from three different examples to create what he described as the "quintessential type of drain." The most important addition to his construction was its cruciform design, admixing the spiritual and corporeal in a way that refers back to his Catholic upbringing. Gober has described the drain metaphorically as functioning in the same way as traditional paintings, as "a window onto another world," adding that "the world you enter into … would be something darker and unknown, like an ecological unconscious." Gober's photograph of the usually indoor conduit situated outside in dense underbrush powerfully communicates his idea of the body and the world pulled into the void through the ineffable promise of redemption offered by God and art.
The drain is one of Gober's central motifs of the last decade. Beginning in the late 1980s, the artist made pewter casts of a drain that he had soldered together from three different examples to create what he described as the "quintessential type of drain." The most important addition to his construction was its cruciform design, admixing the spiritual and corporeal in a way that refers back to his Catholic upbringing. Gober has described the drain metaphorically as functioning in the same way as traditional paintings, as "a window onto another world," adding that "the world you enter into … would be something darker and unknown, like an ecological unconscious." Gober's photograph of the usually indoor conduit situated outside in dense underbrush powerfully communicates his idea of the body and the world pulled into the void through the ineffable promise of redemption offered by God and art.
Artwork Details
- Title: Untitled
- Artist: Robert Gober (American, born Wallingford, Connecticut, 1954)
- Date: 1999
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 25 x 31.5 cm (9 13/16 x 12 3/8 in.)
Sheet: 28 x 35.4 cm (11 x 13 15/16 in.) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2000
- Object Number: 2000.115
- Rights and Reproduction: © Robert Gober
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.