Rachel Whiteread Show in Chelsea "Looking In"

Rachel Whiteread (b. Britain 1963) is the 1st woman to have been awarded the Turner Prize (1993.)  Her exhibit at the Luhring Augustine gallery in Chelsea has a ghostly, ephemeral quality.  She takes banal construction materials such as bricks or mundane architectural features such as shades or doors and cast them in resin.  The gesture makes you confront tangible objects & structures with an enlightened perspective.  Do these objects signify coming or going?  Do they serve to access a space or or establish a citadel?  More importantly, you consider the intangible and invisible space that are surrounded by or separated by these objects.  Whitehead used a serene palette that illuminates the objects in a beautiful light.  Much like an insect imbedded in an amber resin or a "snow globe," space comes into consideration.  The impact of her work made me think of trying to capture fleeting time.  We know things are constantly changing around despite a desire for maintaining permanence; change is imminent whether we choose to pay attention or not.  The artists' intent may not have been to make the viewer  wake up and smell the coffee, and then again, she might.