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The Whitney is closed in preparation for the opening of our new building downtown in spring 2015.
Explore the buildingFor the 2014 Biennial, Zoe Leonard has transformed a section of the Museum’s fourth floor gallery, with its signature Marcel Breuer–designed window, into an enormous camera obscura, drawing attention to both the Museum’s building and the city outside.
The camera obscura is a naturally occurring phenomenon recorded since ancient times, in which a small hole in one side of a dark chamber projects an inverted image of the outside view onto the surfaces of the room. Leonard takes up this principle in order to investigate vision as not only an optical process but also a temporal and social experience; she places us directly inside the camera, engaging with the apparatus of sight itself.
In a series of related camera obscura installations begun in 2011, the artist has sited works in a range of locations, each calling to mind a different set of associations and references. On the occasion of the Biennial, Leonard looked to notes that Breuer made as he designed the Museum’s building in 1965. Of the building, he wrote, “It should be an independent and self-relying unit, exposed to history, and at the same time it should have visual connection to the street”; and, “Windows have lost their justification of existence in this building; only a very few remain, and only to establish a contact with the outside.”
Leonard’s Biennial installation invites visitors to slow down. On entering, the viewer may barely perceive the image; the room might appear to be completely dark. But as one’s eyes adjust, the picture becomes increasingly apparent, growing brighter and revealing color and detail. Simultaneously, the image evolves: the light shifts, blinds open and close, cars drive up Madison Avenue—all projected onto the building’s gridded cement ceiling. The viewer is immersed in a continuous present, watching and listening, as much a part of the installation as is the view outside.
Academy Records and Matt Hanner
Terry Adkins
Etel Adnan
Alma Allen
Ei Arakawa and Carissa Rodriguez
Uri Aran
Robert Ashley and Alex Waterman
Michel Auder
Lisa Anne Auerbach
Julie Ault
Darren Bader
Kevin Beasley
Gretchen Bender
Stephen Berens
Dawoud Bey
Jennifer Bornstein
Andrew Bujalski
Elijah Burgher
Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna
Paravel, and Sensory Ethnography Lab
Sarah Charlesworth
Critical Practices Inc.
Matthew Deleget
David Diao
Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst
Paul Druecke
Jimmie Durham
Rochelle Feinstein
Radamés “Juni” Figueroa
Morgan Fisher
Louise Fishman
Victoria Fu
Gaylen Gerber with David Hammons,
Sherrie Levine, and Trevor Shimizu
Jeff Gibson
Tony Greene curated by Richard
Hawkins and Catherine Opie
Joseph Grigely
Miguel Gutierrez
Karl Haendel
Philip Hanson
Jonn Herschend
Sheila Hicks
Channa Horwitz
HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN?
Susan Howe
Jacqueline Humphries
Gary Indiana
Doug Ischar
Carol Jackson
Travis Jeppesen
Alex Jovanovich
Angie Keefer
Ben Kinmont
Shio Kusaka
Yve Laris Cohen
Chris Larson
Diego Leclery
Zoe Leonard
Tony Lewis
Pam Lins
Fred Lonidier
Ken Lum
Shana Lutker
Dashiell Manley
John Mason
Keith Mayerson
Suzanne McClelland
Dave McKenzie
Bjarne Melgaard
Rebecca Morris
Joshua Mosley
My Barbarian (Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon
and Alexandro Segade)
Dona Nelson
Ken Okiishi
Pauline Oliveros
Joel Otterson
Laura Owens
Paul P.
taisha paggett
Charlemagne Palestine
Public Collectors
Sara Greenberger Rafferty
Steve Reinke with Jessie Mott
David Robbins
Sterling Ruby
Miljohn Ruperto
Jacolby Satterwhite
Peter Schuyff
Allan Sekula
Semiotext(e)
Amy Sillman
Valerie Snobeck and Catherine Sullivan
A.L. Steiner
Emily Sundblad
Ricky Swallow
Tony Tasset
Sergei Tcherepnin
Triple Canopy
Philip Vanderhyden
Pedro Vélez
Charline von Heyl
David Foster Wallace
Dan Walsh
Donelle Woolford
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung