The “Unfinished Conversations: New Work From the Collection” Exhibit (New York City, U.S.A.)

 

African Spirits (2008), a series by photographer Samuel Fosso, that assumes the guises of political, intellectual, and cultural figures from Africa and the African diaspora

The “Unfinished Conversations: New Work From the Collection” Exhibit, opened last March 19, 2017 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), includes works, made in the past decade and recently acquired by the museum.  The show ends on July 30, 2017.

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A fantastical untitled large-scale sculpture, by Argentine sculptor Adrian Villar Rojas, that
 confound one’s sense of time and space and is suggestive of the ruins of
ancient civilizations and fossilized artifacts from the prehistoric world

The exhibition considers the intertwining themes of social protest, the effect of history on the formation of identity, and how art juxtaposes fact and fiction. They reexamine historical moments, evoking images of the past and claiming their places within it. 

Modded Server Rack Display (2015), by artist Simon Denny, with some interpretations of
David Darchicourt Designs for NSA Defense Intelligence. 

They take on contemporary struggles for power, intervening into debates about government surveillance and labor exploitation.

 

Insurance (2016)  by American artist Cameron Rowland, features lashing equipment that physically secures goods to the deck of the ship while its certification is established to insure the value of the goods regardless of their potential loss

The artists that make up this intergenerational selection (John Akomfrah, Jonathas de Andrade, AnnaBoghiguian, Andrea Bowers, Paul Chan, Simon Denny, Samuel Fosso, Iman Issa, Erik van Lieshout, Cameron Rowland, Wolfgang Tillmans, Adrián Villar Rojas, Kara Walker, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye), from Cairo to St. Petersburg, from TheHague to Recife, observe and interpret acts of state violence and the resistance and activism they provoke.

 

Heritage Studies No. 5 (2015), one of three sculptures of the latest series of Iman Issa, takes inspiration from objects the Egyptian-born American  artist encountered in museums

They address current anxiety and unrest around the world and offer critical reflections on our present moment and, together, they look back to traditions both within and beyond the visual arts to imagine possibilities for an uncertain future. 

 

40 Acres of Mules, made in 2015 (a moment marked by Black Lives Matter, a mass mobilization to protest racial profiling and police brutality) by Kara Walker, refers to the undelivered reparations promised to emancipated slaves under the phrase "forty acres and a mule,"or land and an animal to work it.

The title of this exhibition is inspired by John Akomfrah’s The Unfinished Conversation (2012), a three-channel video installation which is included here.  It chronicles the life and work of Stuart Hall (1932–2014), the Jamaican-born British cultural theorist who recognized the power that museum collections have to both shape and reflect culture and communities, contending that they are sources of inspiration “which create thought-provoking visions of our past. They provide testimony to the darkest and brightest of human history.”

 

The Body of Oh Marys (2009), by Paul Chan, are drawings that appropriated erotic texts by personages as diverse as the Marquis de Sade's Bishop X, Monica Lewinsky, and Saint Augustine, assigning excerpts to letters of the alphabet 

The exhibit was organized by Klaus Biesenbach (Chief Curator at Large, The Museum of Modern Art, and Director, MoMA PS1), Lucy Gallun (Assistant Curator, Department of Photography), Thomas J. Lax (Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art), Christian Rattemeyer (The Harvey S. Shipley Miller Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints) and Yasmil Raymond (Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture), with Elizabeth Henderson (Department Coordinator, Office of the Chief Curator at Large).

 

Heritage Studies No. 9 (2015), another of three sculptures in the latest series of Iman Issa

Unfinished Conversations: New Work From the Collection: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 11 West 53rd St. (between Fifth and Sixth Ave.) , New York City, NY 10019, USA. Open 10:30 AM – 5:30 PM (8 PM on Fridays). Admission: US$25/adult, children below 12 years old is free.