Whitney Biennial 2019
May 17–Oct 27, 2019
Josh Kline
39
Floor 5
Born 1979 in Philadelphia, PA
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
Josh Kline explores the conditions of technology, politics, and labor, employing new tools and materials to transform and comment on cultural touchstones. Kline began a science-fiction cycle of works in 2014 to imagine both the possibility and the ruin embedded in our contemporary moment. In earlier projects Kline imagined what might happen if extreme political factionalism, economic inequality, and mass automation continue unabated. Kline directs his focus toward catastrophic climate change and its systemic causes. Photographs of sites of American power are presented behind tinted glass in LED-lit frames, with the hues of pharmaceutical bottles. Kline’s photographs—originally shot on a smartphone—are continuously inundated by water, which the artist describes as “washing the images away like bad dreams or traumatic memories.” In spite of his work’s dystopian implications, Kline insists that “the future hasn’t happened yet. It can be shaped in the present.”
American Flag, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington D.C., 2019; Deck, Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel, Menlo Park, 2019; 432 Park Avenue, Manhattan, 2019; Statue of Ronald Reagan, United States Capitol Rotunda, Washington D.C., 2019; Front Desk, Twitter Headquarters, San Francisco, 2019; United States Capitol, Washington D.C., 2019; Luxury Home, Los Altos Hills, 2019; Skyline, San Francisco, 2019
Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2019 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 17-September 22, 2019). From left to right: Josh Kline, American Flag, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington D.C., 2019; Josh Kline, Deck, Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel, Menlo Park, 2019; Josh Kline, 432 Park Avenue, Manhattan, 2019; Josh Kline, Statue of Ronald Reagan, United States Capitol Rotunda, Washington D.C., 2019; Josh Kline, Front Desk, Twitter Headquarters, San Francisco, 2019; Josh Kline, United States Capitol, Washington D.C., 2019; Josh Kline, Luxury Home, Los Altos Hills, 2019; Josh Kline, Skyline, San Francisco, 2019. Photograph by Ron Amstutz