“It’s a tight squeeze. You
have to climb up, crawl in—and watch your feet!”
—Stephanie Cashman
Robert Gober’s Untitled, popularly known as “the suitcase,” holds a great deal more beneath the floor.Those willing to look inside the work find a subterranean pool, where the legs of a man and a young child wade amid seaweed, rocks, and shells. The scene below requires an entire room—the “Gober room”—which Stephanie Cashman, associate conservator of objects, takes us to in a rare, behind-the-scenes tour. Few have the opportunity to visit the room, which requires going down a floor from the galleries before climbing a ladder to the compartment-like room. Because of the tight space and location of the motor that activates the water’s gentle waves, you have to watch where you step once inside. It’s quite an experience!
Tour the room at mam.org/gober-room.
