Time Management Techniques

Sept 24, 2022–Jan 8, 2023

A slightly warped black and white image of a busy street with people walking along the sidewalk and cars in the intersection.
A slightly warped black and white image of a busy street with people walking along the sidewalk and cars in the intersection.

Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Street Scene), 1987. Gelatin silver print: sheet, 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm); image, 9 1/2 × 12 1/4 in. (24.1 × 31.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. in memory of Jon D. Smith Jr. © Estate of Darrel Ellis

Time Management Techniques showcases photography by artists who examined the medium’s relationship to time between 1968 and 2019. Drawn from the Whitney’s permanent collection, the exhibition features many recent acquisitions alongside works that have never before been exhibited. Each of the artists, despite employing vastly different techniques, aesthetics, and conceptual frameworks, works against the immediacy often associated with photography to reflect a passage of time that is slowed down, expanded, or nonlinear.

Some artists employ a personal archive, reaching back into their individual and familial histories to challenge the linear way stories are often told. Others use photography for its self-referential properties, recording the duration and labor of making photographs and allowing the process to dictate the final form. Still others consider performance and photography together, using the camera to mark a moment and suggest countless more that remain uncaptured. By making works that reflect on varieties of duration, all of these artists reveal the slipperiness of time and articulate the artificial ways we attempt to divide, mark, and come to terms with its passing.

This exhibition is organized by Elisabeth Sherman, Assistant Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

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Corin Hewitt

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These photographs come from Corin Hewitt’s exhibition Seed Stage (2008–9), which blended performance, photography, and installation. Inside a room he built in a gallery in the Whitney’s former uptown location, Hewitt performed three days a week, cooking, sculpting, heating, cooling, casting, canning, eating, and photographing both organic and inorganic materials. He used a desktop printer to output his photographs, composting the rejects and hanging the rest on the gallery walls for the duration of the exhibition. 

  • Still life photograph of various foods—including empty pistachio shells, root vegetables, bread loaves, and mushrooms—atop a gingham blanket.
    Still life photograph of various foods—including empty pistachio shells, root vegetables, bread loaves, and mushrooms—atop a gingham blanket.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 13, October 18, 2008, 2008. Inkjet print, 14 5/8 × 21 3/4 in. (37.1 × 55.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.13. © Corin Hewitt

  • A jar, bright colors, and glove.
    A jar, bright colors, and glove.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 22, October 25, 2008, 2008. Inkjet print: sheet, 16 15/16 × 21 in. (43 × 53.3 cm); image, 13 7/8 × 20 7/16 in. (35.2 × 51.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.22. © Corin Hewitt

  • A marble table with decomposing food.
    A marble table with decomposing food.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 57, January 2, 2009, 2009. Inkjet print: sheet, 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm); image, 14 × 21 in. (35.6 × 53.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.57. © Corin Hewitt

  • Brown material, jar lids, geometric shapes.
    Brown material, jar lids, geometric shapes.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 63, January 4, 2009, 2008. Inkjet print: sheet, 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm); image, 14 × 21 in. (35.6 × 53.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.63. © Corin Hewitt

  • A composite of black and white bars, colored lines, and an orange pointed structure.
    A composite of black and white bars, colored lines, and an orange pointed structure.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 65, January 4, 2009, 2009. Inkjet print: sheet, 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm); image, 14 × 21 in. (35.6 × 53.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.65. © Corin Hewitt

  • Bright colored lines and textured materials.
    Bright colored lines and textured materials.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 66, January 4, 2009, 2009. Inkjet print: sheet, 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm); image, 14 × 21 in. (35.6 × 53.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.66. © Corin Hewitt

  • Bright colors and decomposing food on a dark textured background.
    Bright colors and decomposing food on a dark textured background.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 67, January 4, 2009, 2009. Inkjet print: sheet, 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm); image, 14 × 21 in. (35.6 × 53.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.67. © Corin Hewitt

  • Bright colored lines, jar lids, and textured materials.
    Bright colored lines, jar lids, and textured materials.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 68, January 4, 2009, 2009. Inkjet print: sheet, 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm); image, 14 × 21 in. (35.6 × 53.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.68. © Corin Hewitt

  • Black and white textures and a decomposed vegetable.
    Black and white textures and a decomposed vegetable.

    Corin Hewitt, Untitled # 69, January 4, 2009, 2009. Inkjet print: sheet, 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm); image, 14 5/8 × 21 3/4 in. (37.1 × 55.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee and the Henry Nias Foundation 2009.28.69. © Corin Hewitt

Artists

Essay

Still life photograph of various foods—including empty pistachio shells, root vegetables, bread loaves, and mushrooms—atop a gingham blanket.

Timeless Form

By Elisabeth Sherman, Assistant Curator

Read essay

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection

View 115 works

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

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