Soft Bathtub (Model) — Ghost Version is a painted three-dimensional work which departs from its subject mainly through a substitution of materials. It is not involved with water: in fact it looks as if hung out to dry. It completely ignores the subject's function for its own purposes.

If a representation of water appears in the work it is usually contained or agitated by some human-made device to give it limits and form, and acts as the energy within that subject, for example a glass of melting ice, a drainpipe, a shower, or a hose. The formlessness of water requires invention on the artist's part. I also like what gravity does, making whorls and drops.

Actual water becomes part of certain large outdoor works done since 1976 with Coosje van Bruggen, such as the Spoonbridge and Cherry, for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Gartenschlauch (Garden Hose) in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, and the Dropped Bowl with Scattered Slices and Peels in Miami, Florida. *

*Excerpted from a response to a questionnaire submitted by the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.