In the 1980s and 1990s, Robert Therrien examined the so-called 'ready-made' objects and the way they were viewed in post-modern sculpture. His early sculptures breathe echoes of Pop Art and Minimalism, but because of their domestic aesthetics and their limited size range they remained 'on a human scale'. From the nineties on, Therrien began scaling up his 'household sculptures', embodying them with a monumental aura of alienation. Therrien's enlargements of everyday objects had a somewhat similar effect to the imposing sculpture of totalitarian regimes, but provided a critical commentary on western people, who had become slaves to their daily routine, while totalitarian regimes often benefit from routine. Therrien's sculptures symbolize the underlying drama of our banal but universal existence.
