ART CITIES:Athens-Taryn Simon
Taryn Simon’s practice incorporates photography, text, and graphic design. Known for applying classification systems to troves of images, Simon produces heavily researched bodies of work that unearth little-known narratives from around the world, while undermining the faith placed in the objectivity of image and archival text. Simon’s work often uncovers the unexpected effects of geopolitical forces and large-scale policies on the lives of individuals as well as the fates of the communities they form.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Gallery Archive
Photos form Taryn Simon’s series “Paperwork and the Will of Capital” are on presentation at Gagosian Gallery in Athens. As the starting points of “Paperwork and the Will of Capital”, Taryn Simon drew inspiration from the work of George Sinclair, a British imperial gardener of the 19th century that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution and historical photographs of the signings of political accords between leaders of the 44 countries present at the 1944 United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Taryn Simon has recreated the floral centrepieces arranged on the tables where 36 international agreements were signed, between 1968 and 2014. For the recreations, the artist worked with a botanist to identify all the flowers from archival records. She imported more than 4000 floral and plant specimens from the Aalsmeer Flower Auction to her studio, where she remade, as far as possible, the floral arrangements from each signing, then photographed them against striking duochromatic fields that reproduce the contrasting foreground and background color schemes visible in the historical records. The recreated centerpieces were photographed and custom framed in mahogany to emulate the style of boardroom furniture. The corresponding floral specimens were subsequently dried, pressed, and sewn into sheets of archival herbarium paper, which Simon displays alongside the photographs. “Paperwork and the Will of Capital” addresses the instability of executive decision-making and the precarious nature of survival, as well as the reliability and endurance of records: the accords and their far-reaching effects, Simon’s photographs, and the preserved botanical specimens in their concrete presses; language itself. The photographic still lifes stand in contrast to the sculptural natures mortes: as time advances, so may these artifacts transform, revealing mutable versions of themselves.
Info: Gagosian Gallery, 3 Merlin Street, Athens, Duration 27/2-5/4/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.gagosian.com
