Taryn Simon's last show, 'A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII', opened at Moma in New York and travelled on to Tate Modern via Moca in LA. It was a tour that established Simon - one of the guest editors in our October issue - as a first rank art star, a photographer who uses text, image and graphic design, narrative and intervention and asks questions of all of them. Simon matches meticulous composition with a master documentary maker's tenacity and ability to ask big questions through human-scale stories. Her pictures of obscure and obscured objects in 'An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar' meanwhile map a new post-9/11 America.
Her next show at the Gagosian Gallery in Athens - previewed above, alongside some of her seminal works - is a series of photographs taken over the last six years using the same frame size as Malevich's end-of-something-beginning-of-something else 'Black Square' of 1915.
Moving on from an American Index, Simon again shoots obscure objects of wider significance, this time against a deep black background. Subjects include an artificial heart; a human skin wallet; genetically modified mosquitos; a South African flame-throwing anti-hijaking system fitted on a Toyota Corolla; and a captive parrot with stress-related feather loss.
Meanwhile, as a Wallpaper* guest editor, she presents two new projects in our October issue that explore how the photographic image is classified and catalogued in a digital realm.
Simon has photographed disorienting subjects, each highlighting a specific cultural complexity, collapse or ambiguity within the exact frame size as Kazimir Malevich's 1915 Suprematist masterpiece. Pictured is: 'Black Square IV, The Blaster, South Africa, Invented by Charl Fourie as an Anti-Hijacking system photographed installed on a Toyota Corolla, one of the most frequently carjacked vehicles in South Africa, 2009'
(c) Taryn Simon.
'Black Square IX, Genetically engineered male mosquitoes of the species Aedes aegypti, 2012'
(c) Taryn Simon
'Black Square III, Human Skin Wallet, 2011'
(c) Taryn Simon.
'Black Square II, Artificial Heart, 2009'
(c) Taryn Simon.
From Taryn Simon's archives: 'Chapter XI, A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII, 2011'
(c) Taryn Simon.
From Taryn Simon's archives: 'Cigarettes & Tobacco (abandoned/illegal/prohibited), 2010'
(c) Taryn Simon.
From Taryn Simon's archives: 'OCA (prohibited), 2010'
(c) Taryn Simon.
From Taryn Simon's archives: 'White Tiger (Kenny), Selective Inbreeding Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge and Foundation Eureka Springs, Arkansas, 2006/2007'
(c) Taryn Simon.
From Taryn Simon's archives: 'Hymenoplasty Cosmetic Surgery, PA Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 2005/2007'
(c) Taryn Simon
From Taryn Simon's archives: 'Larry Mayes, scene of arrest, the Royal Inn, Gary, Indiana, 2002'. Police found Mayes hiding beneath a mattress in this room. He served 18.5 years of an 80-year sentence for rape, robbery and unlawful deviate conduct
From Taryn Simon's archives: 'Charles Irvin Fain, scene of the crime, the Snake River, Melba, Idaho, 2002'. Fain served 18 years of a death sentence for kidnapping, rape and murder
(c) Taryn Simon.
ADDRESS
Gagosian Gallery
3 Merlin Street
Athens
TELEPHONE
30.210 3640 215
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For London Gallery Weekend 2023, the mood is hardcore
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