2005

 

Richard Whiteley

Town, STATE

Transparent

Cast and polished optical glass and upholstered red velvet shelf

13 H x 180 W x 32 D cm

Transparent is a piece that utlises the material of glass and its inherent qualities to set up a system that both confirms and denies meaning by way of a visual pun: the work is, literally 'transparent' and is appropriately made out of a highly optical glass. However, as the work focuses upon formal qualities it can never be completely transparent. The visual remains valuable yet in this revered material's most pure form, glass is invisible, identifiable only through the refraction of its surfaces and, in this case, the embossed letters.