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Almine Rech

Taryn Simon An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar

Feb 16 — Mar 15, 2008 | Paris

Inquire about the exhibition: inquiries@alminerech.com

For this project, artist Taryn Simon assumes the dual role of shrewd informant and collector of curiosities, compiling an inventory of what lies hidden and out-of-view within the borders of the United States. She examines a culture through careful documentation of diverse subjects from the realms of science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion. Transforming the unknown into a seductive and intelligible form, Simon confronts the divide between those with and without the privilege of access. Her sometimes ethereal, sometimes foreboding compositions, shot with a large-format view camera whenever conditions allowed, vary as much as her subject matter, which ranges from radioactive capsules at a nuclear waste storage facility to a black bear in hibernation. Offering visions of the unseen, the photographs of An American Index capture the strange magic at the foundation of a national identity…

Press release

  • read or download in English
  • lire ou télécharger en Français
  • lezen of te downloaden in het Nederlands

Selected artworks

  • Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, Decomposing Corpse, 2007

    Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, Decomposing Corpse, 2007

    Chromogenic print, framed
    95 x 113 cm

  • The Central Intelligence Agency Main Entrance Hall, CIA Original Headquarters Building, Langley, Virginia, 2003/2007

    The Central Intelligence Agency Main Entrance Hall, CIA Original Headquarters Building, Langley, Virginia, 2003/2007

    Chromogenic print, framed
    94,6 x 113 cm

  • Dynamo III, Studying Magnetic Fields and Impending Pole Reversal University of Maryland, Monlinear Dynamics Laboratory, College Park, Maryland, 2007

    Dynamo III, Studying Magnetic Fields and Impending Pole Reversal University of Maryland, Monlinear Dynamics Laboratory, College Park, Maryland, 2007

    Chromogenic print, framed
    95 x 113 cm

More on Taryn Simon