“I thought of the drains as metaphors functioning in the same way as traditional paintings, as a window into another world. However, the world that you enter into through the metaphor of the drain would be something darker and unknown, like an ecological unconscious.” —Robert Gober

After creating a celebrated series of plaster sculptures of sinks in the 1980s, Gober started exploring the idea of making a drain sculpture. As with much of his work, months of research and revision went into the production of the first drains. Debuting in 1989, they were cast in pewter, a material prevalent in early American decorative arts.

Nine years later Gober revisited the subject and created a new sculpture based on the kind of drain found in a bathtub, casting it in brass. Untitled (1998) is one of the few outdoor sculptures Gober has created. Installed directly in the earth, its humble scale contrasts with the expansive and ever-shifting quality of the natural environment that surrounds it.