Rainey uses the human torso as a sculptural vehicle to address the body and time. He says: “Sometimes I feel like an archaeologist on a dig, and I tap away until an idea is revealed. The sculptures are fragments that were once coherent and complete, until time reduced them.” He often includes references to the history and mythology of Northern Ireland, where he was born, as well as to recent events. The colorless female figure, Hollow Torso, is constructed from 13 individually cast sections. It symbolizes the transience of the physical body. Although the torso appears strong, even armored, it is still vulnerable, a shell that can be broken. The gray-black pigment rubbed into the surface—the color of X-ray film—underscores the body’s fragility and susceptibility to things that we cannot see.