Taryn Simon has constructed an ambitious body of work that is the result of an invisible and rigorous process of research and investigation. Her works combine photography, text, and graphic design, in conceptual projects addressing the production and circulation of knowledge, and the politics of representation. Simon interrogates the power and structure of secrecy and the precarious nature of survival.
By Dimitris Lempesis Photo: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Archive
Taryn Simon’s latest project, “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar”, is a culmination of four years extensive research and documenting of the unseen and inaccessible hidden below the surface of national identity. Having acquired the complete series to its collection, Louisiana Museum is now able to present the work in its entirety. For this project Simon assumes the dual role of shrewd informant and collector of curiosities, compiling an inventory of what lies inaccessible, hidden and out-of-view within the borders of the United States. She examines a culture through careful documentation of diverse subjects from across the realms of science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion. Transforming the unknown into a seductive and intelligible form, Simon confronts the divide between those with and without the privilege of access. In her acclaimed artistic practice, American artist Taryn Simon seems to navigate somewhere between an undercover agent and a collector driven by the fascination with the rare and curious. Her seminal work “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar” portrays American society (in photographs and texts) of places that are normally inaccessible to the general public. After September 11th, when the American media and government were seeking hidden and unknown sites beyond its borders, most notably weapons of mass destruction, Simon chose to look inward at her own country, to confront the boundaries of the citizen, both self-imposed and real, and the divide between privileged and public access to knowledge. Behind every single picture in “An American Index” lie years of research, culminating in one single photograph with accompanying text. Together, the texts and images uncover the hidden structures that are concealed beneath the surface in the national culture of the USA, and which encompass the foundation, mythology and everyday functioning of the country. Here are motifs that touch on science, religion, medicine, entertainment, nature, security and politics. Taryn Simon depicts subjects such as the art collection at CIA’s headquarters and radioactive waste immersed in water – together with the cage in which a death-row prisoner can move around outdoors, an inbred albino tiger and a neo-Nazi youth office.
Info: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Gl. Strandvej 13, Humlebæk, Duration: 2/3-30/5/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-22:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, https://louisiana.dk
Taryn Simon has constructed an ambitious body of work that is the result of an invisible and rigorous process of research and investigation. Her works combine photography, text, and graphic design, in conceptual projects addressing the production and circulation of knowledge, and the politics of representation. Simon interrogates the power and structure of secrecy and the precarious nature of survival.
