September is always a busy month with many art openings and art fairs.
I am pleased to keep a record of an exhibition at Guggenheim I recently visited. I haven't been to Guggenheim since the pandemic hit New York City, then my last booking was canceled due to the Ida because it was the next morning I was supposed to go. Although this museum is currently almost empty, (you can see in one of the last pictures, the majority of floors and spiral is closed for future exhibition preparation) Just to visit this one floor it's worth it to make it here while they are showing. Currently they are showing two exhibitions plus their permanent collection.
"Off The Record" takes place on the second floor of Guggenheim, there is another show "The Hugo Boss Prize 2020: Deana Lawson, Centropy" at 7th floor which her work does carry a similar theme/interest to the artists in this group show in a way.
Off The Record is essentially about many paintings, hotographies, letters, and videos, and other kinds of recorded(=has/given some kind of shape) memories we hold in a shape but not "official"in society to verify or label ourselves. A painting I am making, for instance, is also a kind of off the record. This show showcases some of somewhat intentional, conscious records among many. Memories that were not recorded, memories that were recorded, memories and personal facts that are recorded and registered as official identifications/official records. Non official records are more flexible and can be modified however the individual decides/wishes/believes which is not-to-be-forgotten one of the faces of those records, more or less. Most biased but most truthful to them and the time in a way. It's very different from "official" records and is very human.
Off The Record is closing on SEPTEMBER 27, 2021. The Hugo Boss Prize 2020: Deana Lawson, Centropy will be on view until October 11, 2021.
The black stars next to the names under the photo indicate my very personal favorites at the time I visited, but this show was great as a whole, extremely well curated.
"Historical, documentary, state, and other records became the collectively accepted communicators of “truth” through their perceived objectivity and comprehensiveness. They presumably tell a story from a place of remove, with all relevant details included. Off the Record challenges this pretense, bringing together the work of contemporary artists from the Guggenheim’s collection who interrogate, revise, or otherwise query dominant narratives and the transmission of culture through official “records.”
Drawn from the context of journalist reportage, the phrase “off the record” here refers to accounts that have been left out of mainstream narratives. The exhibition’s title can also be understood in its verb form: to undermine or “kill” the record as a gesture of redress. Across various manipulations of “records,” artists in this exhibition seek to call out the power dynamics obscured by official documentation, complicate the idea of objectivity and truth, and surface new narrative possibilities.
Off the Record features works by 12 collection artists: Sadie Barnette, Sarah Charlesworth, Sara Cwynar, Leslie Hewitt, Glenn Ligon, Carlos Motta, Lisa Oppenheim, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Sable E. Smith, Hank Willis Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems. The presentation will also include a work by Tomashi Jackson. [...].
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| Sarah Charlesworth |
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