Robert Therrien
No Title (paneled room), 2017, Wood and mixed media, 355.6×473.7×356.2cm. Courtesy of the Robert Therrien Estate, Los Angeles. © Robert Therrien Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York - SACK, Seoul, 2024.
Like a giant riddle, this work stimulates the viewer’s imagination about the person responsible for the room itself. The luxurious finish of the red-tinted wooden walls glisten with multiple layers of lacquer, meticulously applied by skilled artisans. What might this room be for? Why the heap of tambourines in the middle of the floor? If we were to climb the metal ladder, what would we find beyond the trap door in the ceiling? By presenting the familiar in an unpredictable manner, the artist invites individual interpretations shaped by the viewer’s own subconscious. No Title (paneled room) emphasizes the ways in which mundane and easily overlooked items can be used as clues to concealed memories. By transforming everyday objects into unrealistic scales, Robert Therrien (1947-2019) evokes a sense of discomfort and strangeness in the viewer even as he ushers them into a world of his own singular imagination.
