Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture
Oct 4, 2023–Jan 28, 2024
Installation view of Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 3-August 13, 2023). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
This exhibition includes a billboard across from the Museum’s entrance on Gansevoort Street too, on view through March 2024. The installation of Floor 5 is on view through January 28, 2024.
Through her work in ceramic, metal, printmaking, painting, and performance, Rose B. Simpson (b. 1983) draws connections between our contemporary lives and the landscapes we inhabit. Simpson surfaces the histories of marginalized peoples, underscoring a collective lack of awareness about our ancestral past and the natural world. For Simpson, the five figures on view here—cast in concrete in colors reminiscent of her work in clay—remind us that “we are not independent, that the inanimate are watching, and that we are responsible not only to the present but to the ancestral spirits that inhabit a particular place.”
Simpson titled both the exhibition and the individual works Counterculture as a reference to the importance of communities that live separately from dominant cultures but still have significant cultural impact. These watchful figures serve as stand-ins for those that colonization has aimed to silence, including the Lenape and who inhabited much of present-day Manhattan and the surrounding area until they were forcibly displaced by the Dutch in the seventeenth century. Looking out over the city and the Hudson River, notably through hollow eyes, they suggest an awareness of the world beyond our present reality, pointing to landscapes now obscured from this location.
This installation is presented in conjunction with a billboard on Gansevoort Street titled Encounter. The work, a collaboration between Simpson and filmmaker Razelle Benally, is a photographic image that depicts a queer Indigenous individual framed against a rock face in northern New Mexico; the landscape in the image nods to the hardness of the city street where it is presented. As with Simpson’s sculptures on the terrace, the figure wears a beaded ceramic necklace, underscoring a connection to the natural world through the use of clay and a sense of empowerment through this adornment. For Simpson and Benally, Encounter is ultimately an invitation to consider how the natural world relates to the built environment.
This installation and Encounter are part of Outside the Box programming, which is supported by a generous endowment from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation.
En Español
En exposición
Piso 5, Galería exterior
Esta exposición incluye también un espectacular publicitario frente a la entrada del Museo en Gansevoort Street.
A través de su obra en cerámica, metal, grabado, pintura y performance, Rose B. Simpson (n. 1983) establece conexiones entre nuestras vidas contemporáneas y nuestras experiencias de los paisajes que habitamos. Simpson hace visibles las historias de personas marginadas, subrayando la falta de conciencia colectiva sobre nuestro pasado ancestral y el mundo natural. Para Simpson, las cinco figuras expuestas aquí, moldeadas en concreto de colores que remiten a su obra en arcilla, nos recuerda que “no somos independientes, que lo inanimado está observando y que somos responsables no sólo del presente sino de los espíritus ancestrales que habitan un lugar particular.”
Simpson titula tanto la exhibición como las obras individuales Contracultura como una referencia a la importancia de las comunidades que viven de manera separada en una cultura dominante, pero que conservan un impacto cultural significativo. Estas figuras vigilantes sirven como sustituto de aquellas que la colonización ha intentado silenciar, incluyendo a los Lenape que habitaron gran parte de la actual Manhattan y las áreas circundantes hasta que fueron desplazados por los holandeses en el siglo VII. Mirando hacia la ciudad y el río Hudson, notoriamente a través de ojos cansados, sugieren una conciencia del mundo más allá de la realidad presente, apuntando hacia paisajes ahora oscurecidos desde este lugar.
Esta instalación se presenta conjuntamente con el espectacular publicitario en Gansevoort Street titulado Encuentro. La obra, una colaboración entre Simpson y la cineasta Razella Benally, es una imagen fotográfica que representa un individuo indígena queer enmarcado contra una pared rocosa en el norte de Nuevo México. El paisaje en la imagen hace un guiño a la dureza de la calle urbana donde se exhibe. Al igual que la escultura de Simpson en la terraza, la figura lleva un collar de cuentas de cerámica, resaltando una conexión con el mundo natural a través del uso de la arcilla y un sentido de empoderamiento a través de este adorno. Para Simpson y Benally, Encuentro es una invitación a considerar cómo el mundo natural se relaciona con el ambiente construido.
Esta instalación y Encuentro forman parte de la programación de Outside the Box, que cuenta con el generoso apoyo de la Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation.
Audio guides
Rose B. Simpson, Counterculture, 2022 (detail), at Field Farm, Williamstown, MA. Twelve dyed-concrete and steel sculptures with ceramic and cable adornments. Each sculpture: 128 x 24 x 11 inches. Commissioned by Art & the Landscape, a program of The Trustees, Massachusetts. Courtesy the artist, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. © Rose B. Simpson. Photograph by Stephanie Zollshan
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Installation photography
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Installation view of Encounter by Rose B. Simpson and Razelle Benally, 2023. Digital photograph. Collection of the artists
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Installation view of Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 3-August 13, 2023). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 3-August 13, 2023). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 3-August 13, 2023). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 3-August 13, 2023). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
In the News
“…Simpson is best known for her mixed-media sculptures of large-scale beings…five such sculptures, part of a larger work called Counterculture, are on view at the Whitney through January 21.” —Harper’s Bazaar