Robert Gober
American, born 1954
Double Sink
INV-1895
Robert Gober
American, born 19541984
Double Sink
Robert Gober American, born 1954 →sculpture
Date
1984
Medium
Latex and enamel on plaster, wood, wire lath, and steel
Dimensions
83.8 × 152.4 × 68.6 cm (33 × 60 × 27 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Donna and Howard Stone
Double Sink is exactly what it seems—a domestic basin with holes where the taps typically go. Gober's sink shows signs of being handmade and is missing the hardware and plumbing fixtures of a functional object. The discrete modifications to this now-functionless form suggest anthropomorphic associations: the dark holes resemble bodily orifices, and the softly curving corners and lip of the sink are likewise creaturely. An early example from the artist's sink series (1983-86), Double Sink draws from Gober's imagination as well as his memories and experiences of the first years of the AIDS epidemic. The object takes on an expressive role as a coded symbol of memory and loss, mystery and regret, humor and pathos.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
