In June 1998, the Public Art Fund inaugurated its most ambitious project to date: Water Tower, British artist Rachel Whiteread's first public sculpture in the United States. Water Tower is a translucent resin cast of the interior space of a 12'2" (high) x 9' (diameter) wooden water tank. The tank served as a mold for the resin and once removed, a clear monolithic form was revealed. The hollow cast was raised 7 stories to rest upon the dunnage (steel tower frame) of a Soho rooftop. Water Tower will remain visible from street level at the corner of West Broadway and Grand Street through June 1999. Situated among two functioning water tanks, Water Tower is described by the artist as a "jewel in the Manhattan skyline". On a cloudy day, the weathered surface of the original tank's interior will be visible from street level, providing a ghostly form. In bright sunlight the translucent resin will become a beacon of refracted light, and at night the unlit sculpture will disappear against the darkened sky. Poetic, yet incongruous, Whiteread's Water Tower powerfully represents a need for public sculpture to be physically present yet, paradoxically, ephemeral.

Rachel Whiteread was approached by the Public Art Fund four years ago, shortly after explosive public interest in House, her concrete cast of an East London row house, for which she received the prestigious Turner Prize. Whiteread's House was a natural extension of her inverted casts of domestic objects such as mattresses, chairs, tables and water bottles that grew in scale to include the cast of a single room, Ghost, which was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1994. As a visitor to New York in 1994 and 1995, Whiteread researched many sites and public locations throughout the city. The constant flux, noise and movement of the city cautioned her against locations most commonly associated with public sculpture. Whiteread became preoccupied with the possibility of a public sculpture maintaining a presence within an urban environment without imposing its own physicality on the community. While walking under the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge Whiteread noticed the skyline dotted with water towers. This vernacular and quintessentially New York structure suggested further exploration into the significance of anonymous architecture as a sculptural form.

Technical Support: The original yellow cedar water tank used as the mold for Water Tower was carefully removed from the rooftop of an upper east-side building by American Pipe and Tank Lining Co., Inc. and reconstructed in a Chelsea studio. Fabricator Charles Hickok worked with Rachel Whiteread to determine a precise method of casting. With assistance from Hage Engineering and California-based resin manufacturer, BJB Enterprises, Water Tower was cast in a single monolithic form with walls three inches thick. The fabrication of Water Tower took four months to complete.

Rachel Whiteread was born in London in 1963 and continues to live and work there. She was educated at Brighton Polytechnic and the Slade School of Art. Following a series of one person and group exhibitions, that included Metropolis in Berlin's Martin Gropius Bau (1992), Doubletake at London's Hayward Gallery (1992) and Documenta 9, Whiteread achieved international recognition in 1993 for her first public art commission, House: a concrete cast of the interior architectural space of an entire East London row house. In that same year she also became the first woman to be awarded the Tate Gallery's prestigious Turner Prize. In addition to many exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout the world, including the British Pavilion at the 1997 Venice Biennale, Whiteread has pursued an interest in public projects through her commission for the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna and Water Tower, a project of the Public Art Fund.

Rachel Whiteread's Water Tower is sponsored through Beck's prestigious New York Arts Program.

About Beck's New York Arts Program: Beck's is synonymous with high-profile sponsorship in the realm of visual and performing arts. Over the past 13 years the Beck's Arts Sponsorship Programme in Britain has supported the most prestigious contemporary art events, including exhibitions by Rebecca Horn, Gilbert & George and Richard Long. An on-going collaboration with Art angel has resulted in joint commissions with Tatsuo Miyajima, Robert Wilson and Hans Peter Kuhn, Gabriel Orozco, and Douglas Gordon. The first of these commissions was Rachel Whiteread's House. In 1997 Beck's launched the New York Arts Program sponsoring the 1997 Whitney Biennial and the multi-media performance/ CD- Rom project, Fantastic Prayer, by Tony Oursler, Constance Dejong and Steven Vitiello, at the Dia center for the Arts. A distinctive limited edition Beck's beer bottle was created by Tony Oursler to commemorate this event. Beck's sponsorship of Rachel Whiteread's Water Tower, marks their second collaboration with the Public Art Fund, following Barbara Kruger's Bus project in 1997.

Water Tower has been made possible through the support of the Charles Engelhard Foundation, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, Werner H. and Sarah-Ann Kramarsky, the Silverweed Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Challenge Initiative, and generous individuals.

Water Tower is located on the rooftop of a building on Grand Street. Water Tower can be viewed from the corner of West Broadway and Grand Street.