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Ghosts at the Guggenheim?
Exhibition explores presence of the past
Tacita Dean’s Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS (in three movements) to John Cage’s composition 4’33″ with Trevor Carlson, New York City, 28 April 2007 (six performances; six films). Image © Dia Art Foundation (Photo: Ken Goebel)
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Halloween may be long gone, but the curators at the Guggenheim don’t care. Beginning at the end of March, they’re presenting an exhibition called Haunted. This isn’t exactly the goblins and vampires kind of haunting, though. The exhibition will explore the way in which memories of the past haunt the present, through the medium of photography, video, and live performance.
The invention of photography in the mid-nineteenth century made it possible, for the first time, to capture an exact image of the present moment and preserve it for the future. In the 1960s, art and photography collided when Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg began to incorporate photographed images into their paintings, recasting their art as an archive of the collective consciousness. Haunted will trace the juxtaposition of photography and art from the 1960s onward, paying significant attention to work created after 2001 by younger artists. These contemporary artists continue to explore photography as a reproductive media within the context of an increasingly globalized society.
The earliest photographers, attempting to document the battles of the Civil War, were foiled by early limitations: the exposure times required were too long to capture the roiling action of the actual battles. Instead, the photos show the horrific aftermath: desolate fields strewn with bloody bodies. Following this tradition, much of the contemporary work shown in the exhibition reveals a fascination with landscape and the passage of time: Ana Mendieta’s Untitled (Silhouette Series) depicts the indistinct outline of a human form in an empty, flooded field, and Idris Khan’s Homage to Bernd Becher records the construction of a building by juxtaposing images of it in varying stages of completion.
The artists take on film, too, reexamining the role of video documentation as an object embedded in time. In a visually striking video installation by Tacita Dean, six monitors show Merce Cunningham performing STILLNESS on six different nights. Viewing the not-quite-identical performances all at once, you can’t help but feel an unsettling sense of déjà-vu, as if you’ve wandered into an alternate reality.
Starting on June 4th, Haunted will expand to include two annexes, where additional works by Thomas Demand, Stan Douglas, Christian Marclay, and Jeff Wall will be on view. Certain nights in June and July will feature live performances of specially commissioned works by Sharon Hayes, Joan Jonas, and Tris Vonna-Michell.
Part I of Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance will be shown from March 26-Septermber 6, 2010, and Part II will be shown from June 4–September 1st, 2010. Museum admission ($18 for adults, $15 for students/seniors) includes an audio tour of Haunted. For more information, please visit guggenheim.org or call 212-423-3500.