Ugo Rondinone wanderer above the sea of fog 1818, 2015

Dating from 2015 and 2016, the quietly provocative aluminum artworks collectively known as Windows form a significant recent series from the Swiss born artist Ugo Rondinone. Each work in this series of life-size windows cast in aluminium is named after a painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich.

Left in their raw, silver-colored state after casting, each work in the series undermines the fundamental function of the window in daily life with their defiant solidity and sightless panes. Instead of diminishing the interiority of the spaces they hang in by allowing us to see outside, Rondinone’s metal windows reinforce a sense of isolation from the external world and provoke a palpable sense of enclosure.