Liz Deschenes

In recent work Deschenes has made photographs that respond to the sites in which they are initially exhibited. Untitled, a four-part photogram made for the 2012 Whitney Biennial, addresses the Museum’s Marcel Breuer–designed building, its home from 1966 to 2014. While photograms—a camera-less process in which photosensitive paper is exposed to light and then processed—traditionally have been used by artists such as Man Ray to record the outlines of objects placed directly on the paper, Deschenes’s photograms are made by exposing the paper outside at night, recording the subtle variations in available luminescence. The four vertical photograms of Untitled echo the stepped facade of the Breuer building as well as the bellows of a large- format view camera, of the type often used for architectural photography. Rather than simply fixedly recording the past, however, the mirrored surfaces of these photographs—which in the present reflect the spaces in which they are displayed— will oxidize over time. As Deschenes has explained, “The photographs simultaneously refer to their history, reflect the present, and will continue to unfold over time.”