Taryn Simon Show At Guggenheim Features 1,000 Photos, Film, Sculpture

(MENAFN- USA Art News) A major solo exhibition by Taryn Simon, which includes over 1,000 photographs, film, and sculpture, has opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The exhibition, titled“Father Country I Do Love You,” is on view through March 14 and represents the 51-year-old photographer's largest show to date, as well as the biggest body of work ever to debut at the Guggenheim.

The project, which took ten years to create, explores the career of an unnamed federal agent through 42 distinct“chapters” presented along the museum's ramp. Each chapter combines text detailing an episode from the agent's career, such as hostage negotiations with Saddam Hussein or a clandestine meeting with Gorbachev, with related installations that venture in unexpected directions. For instance, one chapter pairs the agent's account of the sting operation involving Washington, DC, mayor Marion Barry with“look book” photos of clothing designed by the sister of the disgraced politician's former mistress, who served as bait. Another section places text about an abortion clinic bombing alongside a rendering of a pro-life memorial proposed by an extremist religious network.

Simon noted that the project has“sucked me dry” and that she“can't imagine doing this again.” The New York-born and based artist, known for her exhaustive research and ability to access closed-off spaces, spent years investigating the connections between economics, politics, and pop culture before capturing images. Her previous works include the 2015 show“Paperwork and the Will of Capital,” which recreated floral bouquets from historic diplomatic photo-ops, and“An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar,” which documented sites hidden from public view like a nuclear waste facility and CIA headquarters.

The current exhibition traces the federal agent's career from the early 1990s, when he appeared as an extra on the set of The Silence of the Lambs, to 2024, when he worked the Republican National Convention where Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate. The artist became aware of the agent in 2017 while examining FBI files from the 1990s, noting his recurring presence in significant historical events. Simon said the chapters are“prismatic” and“are looking at the shards of much larger events and the effects of an individual's actions upon them. There's an inseparable coexistence of contradictory states, violence and grace, grief and routine, responsibility and fantasy.”

The exhibition also features teak installations at the top and bottom of the Guggenheim's ramp, which are dedicated to Simon's recently deceased father. These installations are inspired by a story her father, who worked for the State Department, told about the mysterious death of Thai silk magnate Jim Thompson. Simon writes in the introductory wall text that her father took thousands of Kodachrome photos during his travels, each accompanied by“a dramatic tale, delivering suitcases of cash to generals in Cambodia, yakuza threatening to break his arm in a door, having tea with his kidnappers in Lebanon, and starting the Thai stock exchange. He recorded everything and expected me to do the same.” The exhibition blurs the lines between the agent's narrative and her father's adventures, especially as her father's ability to distinguish fact from fantasy diminished after an Alzheimer's diagnosis. Simon quotes her father from the introductory wall text:“'America,' he said, 'was the best story on earth if you could find someone to tell it.'”

We previously reported:

Taryn Simon's exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum explores true stories that sound like conspiracy theories, drawn from her father's tales and an FBI agent's

Source: Cultured Magazine

MENAFN22092026005694012507ID1111701096