Untitled (1995–1997) by Robert Gober has been permanently installed in the lower level of Schaulager since the building opened in 2003.

The rushing water can already be heard from afar. The overall positive connotation of water pervades the Arcadian aspect of the square room. The Virgin Mary with outstretched arms, a life-size sculpture cast in concrete, marks the middle of the cruciform installation. A monumental bronze culvert pierces her abdomen. The cedar staircase, seen on the wall behind her, climbs into the unknown. Water cascades over the steps and collects on the floor below before flowing into a bronze grate. The Madonna is also standing on an oversized drainage grate. A subterranean “seabed,” visible through a brick shaft, reveals a landscape of seaweed, shells, starfish, and crabs as well as silver and copper coins. Two large leather suitcases stand symmetrically near the perimeter of the room on either side of the Madonna. Their lids are open and the bottoms each have huge, solid grates affording a view of a man standing in the water up to his knees and holding up a swaddled infant.

The presence of things and bodies is conflicting. In addressing matters of religion, Gober mercilessly conflates idyll and menace, appropriation and transgression. The ambiguity and the gaze, ingeniously directed to provoke astonishment and shock, reinforce this vehement, indeed blasphemous attack on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Is the perforated Madonna guarding a wishing well? Have we discovered an infant about to be baptized or are we witness to hidden abuse? In itself a sign of life and purity, water undermines the sacred elements, becomes an ambiguous metaphor of a quest, and meanders between salvation and damnation. The old-fashioned suitcases and the stairs bring the profane into play with their implications of domesticity and everyday life.

At first sight, one might think that the elements of the installation are found objects, but the artist and his assistants made them all by hand with painstaking, meticulous care. Gober works with a diversity of challenging materials to implement what he envisions; the almost perfect imitation of familiar things gives their ambivalence an even greater thrust. Strange surroundings and shifts in scale deprive symbols of their reliable impact. What’s more, they even pit them against the concealment of social abysses.

Gober created Untitled with the help of his team as a site-specific installation for his solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 1997. It took two years to complete this extremely complex installation.