Not My Mother's Museum

I try never to miss the Whitney Biennial.  This year it was even weirder than usual.  Ajay Kurian's "Childermass" starts in the basement and ascends several floors.  With all the hanging kids, I'm kinda surprised it didn't have a trigger warning.

A painting by Celeste Dupuy-Spencer contrasted downloading music and collecting records.

I couldn't resist comparing my own collection.  Only Patti Smith's "Horses," Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA," and Marianne Faithfull's "Broken English" overlap on this shelf.  These records must belong to the finger-pointing geek's parents!

I couldn't make heads nor tails of KAYA's enormous, colorful installations.

This detail from Tala Madani's "Shitty Disco" reminded me of Hieronymus Bosch and appealed to my inner teen.

Thumbtacked bologna slices comprise the decorative surface of this shed for "Claim."  Pope. L aka William Pope inserted photographic images into their centers.  Most of them slowly deteriorated as the lunchmeat dried.  The fragrant headnsmacker that no longer reeked by the time I saw it.

Anybody that read a word about the 2017 Biennial has an opinion on this controversial painting by  Dana Shutz.  She chose to depict Emmett Till, the black teenager murdered by white racists during the Civil Rights movement, in his casket.  Whatever its aesthetic merits, freedom of expression is a fundamental American right.

Much of the art on exhibit addressed politics.  A detail from "Loteria, Letters & Masks: El Chapo, Bush, Clinton, Fox, Castro, Donkey & the Devil" by Aliza Nisenbaum.

"Liberty" (Liberté) by Puppies Puppies greeted visitors to the museum's outdoor galleries.  She looked a little worse for the wear and tear of our times.

"Censorship Now" by Frances Stark took up a disproportionate amount of space but the reference to J. Edgar Hoover's "nightie" was irresistible.  The notorious FBI director once wrote my father a thank you letter.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Speaking of capitalist ideology, this disabled art patron in front of Occupy Museums' "Debtfair" provided a telling metaphor for American society that elected a president on the basis of his reputed "business acumen."  We reap what we sow.

Not sure if "Figure Ground: Beyond The White Field" by Rafa Esparza and Beatriz Corte's "Carin" referred to Trump wall's but I admired its construction.  The young men depicted are homosexual.

Rarely does a museum exhibit force me to turn away but Jordan Wolfson's "Real Violence" accomplished this distinction through a virtual reality depiction of anti-Semitism.  It was as horrifying as anything I've ever seen.

Aside from Samara Golden's "The Meat Grinder's Iron Clothes," I have to admit the non-political work wasn't as compelling.

"Painting" by Torey Thornton:

"Evolution" by John Kessler:

 

"Exodus" by John Kessler:

Detail from "beginning & the end neither & the otherwise betwixt & between the end is the beginning & the end."  That's not stained glass in the background, it's paper cut, colored and assembled by artist Raúl de Nieves.

"Some" by Ulrike Muller:

Detail from Shara Hughes:

John Riepenhoff (with a contribution from Michelle Grabner at left):

Aerial view of Larry Bell's "Pacific Red."

Cauleen Smith's “In the Wake” banners: