Robert Irwin, born Long Beach, CA 1928 Search this
Medium:
mixed media: fiberboard, paper, plastic and fabric
Dimensions:
22 3/4 x 22 1/8 x 10 in. (57.8 x 56.2 x 25.4 cm)
Type:
Sculpture
Date:
1980
Luce Center Label:
Robert Irwin believes that the viewer’s perceptions, rather than material objects, define a place. In 1983, for a General Services Administration commission at the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C., Irwin hung forty-eight panels of translucent fabric in rows from the atrium ceiling. Irwin intended the fabric to alter the way the viewer looked at the whole space. He hoped that because the panels appeared and disappeared, depending on the angle of sunlight coming through the skylight, the viewer’s eye would constantly move between the architecture and the fabric, increasing her awareness of the original architectural details of the atrium.
Luce Object Quote:
“Of course we all think we simply see . . . but do we really? . . . we pass through the world habituating and editing out much more than we ever acknowledge.” Robert Irwin, quoted in Robert Irwin, ed. Russell Ferguson, 1993
