“In signature works like “Ghost” and “House,” the British sculptor Rachel Whiteread made plaster casts of the interiors of London homes. Monumental yet ethereal, these works addressed Minimalist sculpture with polite deference while striking up bold conversations about urban preservation. (“House,” a public-art commission made in a condemned East London terrace house and exhibited in situ, was controversial enough that a local council destroyed it after just a few months.)
Ms. Whiteread’s latest project is not a single dwelling but an entire village: an installation of some 200 vintage dollhouses lighted from within and arranged on stepped pedestals in a darkened room. “Place (Village),” the centerpiece of a mini-survey devoted to the artist at the Museum of Fine Arts here, may strike the artist’s admirers as a bizarre and kitschy departure. Viewers who have never seen one of her room-size casts won’t really get a sense of her work from this piece, which is making its United States debut here.
Still, the exhibition, which includes drawings and a few smaller sculptures, reveals the more emotive side of an artist who can come off as somber and humorless. Standing in the midst of “Village,” you have the sensation of floating over the rooftops of Chagall’s Vitebsk.
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