the evening 1822, 2016

Dating from 2015 and 2016, the quietly provocative artworks collectively known as Windows form a significant series from Ugo Rondinone. Each work in this series of hanging life-size windows cast in bronze or aluminum is named after a painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. The bronze windows designate paintings with night-time scenes. When completed, this series will stand in for Friedrich’s complete oeuvre, 160 windows in total.

Left in their raw 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.