Robert Gober's 2015 Exhibition Explores Embodiment and Social Critique Through Sculptural Objects

Robert Gober's work, as examined in a 2015 review, probes the contradictions of American society through meticulously crafted objects that resist metaphorical interpretation. His sculptures, including Untitled (1990) featuring wax buttocks printed with a musical score, merge bodily and spiritual themes. Gober employs materials like plaster, paint, and cast crystal to create deceptive forms such as hairy candles and trompe l'oeil plywood, emphasizing craft over symbolism. The artist, alongside Mike Kelley, critiques ingrained issues like racism and homophobia, drawing from their 1950s Catholic upbringings. Gober's installations, such as pewter drains embedded in walls and replica boxes of rat bait, explore states of suspended identity and transitions between domestic and sewer spaces. While some pieces, like Untitled (2012) with an inverted sink mimicking driftwood and limbs, can become overly baroque, others, including sinks and cribs, evoke the body's presence and absence with evocative mystery. The exhibition's title, 'The Heart Is Not a Metaphor,' signals Gober's aim to realize the physical and spiritual embodiment of the heart, often using Catholic imagery to suggest love as perverted by society. Themes of childhood fragility and same-sex attraction recur in his art, which relies on personal references detailed in the exhibition catalogue's chronology. This review was first published in March 2015 by ArtReview.