We're moving!
The Whitney is closed in preparation for the opening of our new building downtown in spring 2015.
Explore the buildingLisa Anne Auerbach’s work is on view in the Museum’s third floor galleries. American Megazine will be activated on Fridays, 6–9 pm.
The knitted banner, garments modeled on mannequins, and large magazine (or “megazine”) on view in the 2014 Biennial are representative of Lisa Anne Auerbach’s diverse practice, at the intersection of visual art, self-publishing, political activism, and craft-making. After teaching herself to knit, Auerbach began incorporating political messages into her garments. Many of these messages are utopian or unabashedly propagandistic; others are poetically obscure or wistful musings on the efficacy of political activism. The examples in the Biennial include references to the Russian feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot and the hardcore punk band Minor Threat. There is also a pair of pants inspired by Honsestrik, a Danish knitting movement that, among other motives, encouraged people to wear more personally relevant clothing, untethered to the capitalist motivations of textile companies.
The phrases knit into Auerbach’s wall-hung banner, Let the Dream Write Itself, are drawn from her meetings with psychics throughout Southern California. She suggests that the ways that language functions in the New Age self-help culture and in activist movements are not entirely dissimilar: vague slogans are juxtaposed with bits of wisdom, all ultimately striving for (if not always achieving) transformational change.
In the second issue of her American Megazine, Auerbach takes the reader on a photographic tour of storefronts operated by psychics, including many quoted in the banner. American Megazine is a monument of sorts to the self-published zine movement, particularly those produced in the 1990s around feminist music scenes such as riot grrrl. It also humorously points to the history of books and conceptual architectural photography projects by fellow California artists, including Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) and Judy Fiskin (b. 1945).
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