A versatile substance with many applications, resin can be derived from both organic and non-organic sources. Plant resin is a viscous substance extracted from many types of trees, which dries as a solid. For centuries, artists have used plant resin to make varnish, a protective coating applied over a painting. Natural resin varnishes tend to turn yellow or brown with age, requiring the intervention of art conservators, who can remove the varnish without disturbing the paint layer. Synthetic resins possess many of the same qualities as their natural counterparts: they are liquid under certain conditions and are capable of hardening permanently. For this reason, such substances are ideal for making sculptural work. American artist Eva Hesse pioneered the use of polyester resin in her work, emphasizing the translucent, bodily quality of the material in works like Repetition Nineteen III (1968). British artist Rachel Whiteread is well known for her use of cast resin. For her 1995 work Untitled (One Hundred Spaces), Whiteread made 100 resin casts of the spaces underneath chairs, making the immaterial material. The light-weight and translucency of resin function well in Whiteread’s work, which often has an ethereal quality.

Resin has applications in decorative arts and design as well. Dutch designer Marcel Wanders uses epoxy resin to harden soft fibers into weight-bearing forms in his macramé Knotted Chair (1995). Similarly, Oki Sato of the Japanese design studio Nendo used resins to transform paper into a comfortable piece of furniture in his Cabbage Chair (2007). Other artists who have used resin, either for sculpture or for decorative art, include Matthew Barney, Chris Ofili, Ron Davis, Katharina Fritsch, and Patrick Jouin.