'Simplicity can be rich': Rachel Whiteread at Goodwood Art Foundation
The Turner Prize winner's 'surreal, spectacular' sculptures are on display in ancient West Sussex woodland

"Few British artists make work as consistently high-calibre" as Rachel Whiteread, said Cal Revely-Calder in The Telegraph. She was the first woman to win the Turner Prize, back in 1993; now, her sculptures and photographs are the "headline act" at the new Goodwood Art Foundation in West Sussex.
Set among the "ancient trees" on the edge of a meadow lies one of her most striking pieces, "Down and Up". Cast from an old staircase in a former synagogue in London's Bethnal Green, the imposing grey concrete sculpture of "a pair of staircases leading to nowhere" will no doubt be the "Instagram star" of the show. Marvelling at the art "in the open air" and away from the bustling crowds of urban galleries is a real "pleasure".
It's a "spectacular, surreal, collision of urban grit and English pastoral", said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. In a clearing, you'll find "Untitled (Pair)". Cast from mortuary slabs, these "two bone-white rectangular slabs" have a haunting feel. "Alone with this monument, the tall trees standing guard around me, I don't so much ponder mortality as silently scream."
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At the end of a "long, narrow vista" in the woods lies "Detached II". A "poem to solitude", surrounded by "unruly spring growth", the concrete sculpture is cast from a garden shed, "its windows opaque, its doors closed forever". As you circle it, you feel "more and more alone" as you look for a way in.
Inside the main gallery, there's a collection of Whiteread's "deeply striking" photographs, said Nancy Durrant in The Times. Taken in a series of locations around the world, they examine the "passage of time and the inevitable deterioration of the structures we create". There's a "melancholy" to her work but also a "very tiny sniff of humour": a damaged decorative wall has been fixed with "hilarious ineptitude", while a "tired, broken plastic toy, discarded in the street", has a hint of "knowing ridiculousness".
Taking "centre stage" inside is the "Doppelganger" sculpture – a jumble of "cheap building detritus resembling a collapsing shack", painted completely white, so that it looks like a kind of "ghost dwelling".
Like the Foundation's grounds, her works could be labelled as "simple", said Revely-Calder in The Telegraph. "If so, fine: simplicity can be rich. Whiteread's art is proof of that."
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Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.
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