Bestowing a quiet melancholy, Louise Lawler’s (b.1947) Lost at Sea (Curtains) (1996–7) depicts a folded drawing by Lawrence Weiner, theatrically situated behind curtains in a seemingly empty room. A key artist of the Pictures Generation – who sought to analyse the relationship between mass media and popular culture – Lawler is known for finding images and re-presenting them in different contexts, dissecting questions about desire, value and memory. Reading ‘Lost at Sea… Without a pot to piss in,’ the image evokes feelings of isolation and loneliness inherent to the human condition. Describing Lawler’s radical approach, Roberta Smith once noted how her ‘images have multiple lives, exposing the ceaseless flexibility of photographs.’ An edition of this work is housed in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.