[Beside Land's Culture] : Simone Whiteread, Sarah Haacke, Teresita Morales & Peter Gill
A retrospective (2005)

The work does result from an awareness of the kinds of activity: collecting, analysing and sharing data. It's a sense of active seeking and scrutiny, what we see is the musicality of light and the exquisite pleasure of surprise; the use of texts or single words to engage the viewer; no conclusions drawn, however, the artworks supply us with the ever topical, ever desirable presence of a poetic spirit, away from the turmoil of trends and generations; rather than a single obvious reading, there are several readings that are available. The resulting images present abstract forms merging with a visceral landscape, simultaneously appearing to be drawn from such traditions as Islamic ornamentalism or the Ecole de Paris and a futuristic, space-age biomorphicism, what we see is the musicality of light and the exquisite pleasure of surprise; within each work a 'statement' functions to describe the continuum within a balance of constants and variables; the use of lettering as a means of contributing to the atmosphere and playing on perception, the title of the project captures the described image and concept; in Beside Land's Culture, Simone Whiteread entwines science and religion in a complex work touching every aspect of migration.