Marina Zurkow: Parting Worlds

Through Jan 11

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Monarch butterflies flutter over a barren landscape. People in yellow hazmat suits examine the ground and picnic tables.

On view
Floor 5

Open: Apr 9, 2025–Jan 11, 2026

Marina Zurkow: Parting Worlds brings together a selection of software-based works by Marina Zurkow (b. 1962; New York), an artist who explores the intersection of nature and culture through various mediums, including code, animation, and participatory experiences like dinners and card games. In the works on view in the gallery and on the adjacent terrace, Zurkow uses software that drives the interplay of the elements seen on screen and their ever-changing compositions to reflect on the complexity of ecological and social systems. The animations Mesocosm (Wink, TX) (2012) and The Earth Eaters (2025) imagine the environmental damage that results from the repeated extraction of raw materials. The work that constitutes the Hyundai Terrace Commission—The River is a Circle (2025)—is site-specific and engages with the ecologies of the Hudson River and the neighborhood surrounding the Whitney. “Parting Worlds” in the title alludes to the landscapes above and below the water, the earth breaking apart in a sinkhole, and islands emerging and separating as they are continually tapped for natural resources. It is also a phrase that evokes impermanence and loss as environments change and disappear due to human intervention and natural evolution.

Learn more about the terrace artwork

Marina Zurkow: Parting Worlds is organized by Christiane Paul, Curator of Digital Art, with David Lisbon, Curatorial Assistant.

En Español

Esta exhibición reúne una selección de obras basadas en software de Marina Zurkow (n. 1962, Nueva York, NY), una artista que explora la intersección entre naturaleza y cultura a través de diversos medios como el código, la animación y experiencias participativas como cenas y juegos de cartas. En las obras expuestas en la galería y en la terraza adyacente, Zurkow utiliza un software que guía la interacción de los elementos que se ven en la pantalla y sus composiciones en constante cambio para reflexionar sobre la complejidad de los sistemas ecológicos y sociales. Las animaciones Mesocosmos (Wink, TX) (2012) y Los devoradores de la Tierra (2025) en la galería Kaufman, imaginan el daño medioambiental que resulta de la constante extracción de materias primas. La Hyundai Terrace Commission, El río es un círculo (2025) y El río es un círculo (instalación) (2025), es específica al sitio y se relaciona con las ecologías del río Hudson y del vecindario que rodea al Whitney. El título Separando mundos alude a los paisajes por encima y por debajo del agua, a la tierra que se rompe en un sumidero y a las islas que surgen y se separan al ser continuamente explotadas en busca de recursos naturales. "Separando mundos" es también una frase que evoca la impermanencia y la pérdida a medida que los entornos cambian y desaparecen por causa de la intervención humana y la evolución natural.

La Hyundai Terrace Commission es una instalación especifica al sitio que se realiza anualmente en la galería exterior del quinto piso del Whitney y una colaboración multianual con Hyundai Motor.

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Golden statues and objects on islands in a wavy sea, with a face in the sun above.

The Earth Eaters is an animated, software-based “fairy tale” that depicts the process and impact of the extraction of raw materials from the earth. The algorithms driving the animation produce an endless cycle of floating islands, animal inhabitants, and miners who hack away at the land, while golden human statues occasionally appear to signal a position of power. Monumental war machines—drones, tanks, and jets—emerge from the earth, both wounding it and necessitating the infliction of more harm to tap natural resources. Their surfaces reference the unrefined raw materials that have been extracted, including iron, gold, diamonds, and lithium. Marina Zurkow trained artificial intelligence models to produce the animated weapons, as well as islands based on woodcuts and mineable places described in De Re Metallica (1556) by Georgius Agricola, who is considered the first mineralogist and founder of geology. She also used these models to generate iterations of the menageries from Historiae Animalium (mid-1500s) by Conrad Gessner, who many credit as the first modern zoologist.