Curated by Rachel Gugelberger and Manon Slome November 13, 2017 to March 14, 2018 Opening reception: Monday, November 13, 6 PM – 8 PM Nathan Cummings Foundation 475 10th Avenue, 14th Floor New York, NY 10018 Viewing Hours by appointment: Monday – Friday, 9:30 AM – 5 PM To view the exhibition, email: exhibits@nathancummings.org A series of free public programs accompanies the exhibition For more information visit nolongerempty.org
With alternative facts, fake news and outright lies permeating the national
Foreword
conversation since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the foundation on which democracy relies has been thoroughly degraded. But amidst the resulting social, political and psychic chaos caused by this “post-truth”
Hold These Truths brings together twenty-two artists and collectives
It has been an honor working with The Nathan Cummings Foundation
reality, there has been a growing resistance fueled by a shared sense that
whose work responds to this complex and critical moment in United
to create this exhibition in a manner that reflects our shared values and
things have become so dire, and the cost to humanity so unthinkable, that
States history. Curated by Rachel Gugelberger, Curator, and Manon
ongoing concerns. Consider Hold These Truths an invitation to join in
many cannot stay silent.
Slome, Co-Founder/Chief Curator, the exhibition grapples with themes
this critical exploration of creative action and transparency in a time that
that occur at the intersection of multiple injustices and courageous
requires courage, compassion, and recognizing one’s truth embedded
“In Trump world, facts don’t matter, truth doesn’t matter, language doesn’t
resistance—connecting the actions of artists, cultural organizers and their
within multi-vocal realities that shape our everyday lives.
matter,” opines New York Times op-ed columnist Charles Blow (“Trump’s
extended networks.
Degradation of Language,” May 1, 2017). “Passionate performance is the Carol Stakenas, Executive Director
As an organization not tied to a single physical space, No Longer
No Longer Empty
Hold These Truths
only ideal. A lie forcefully told and often repeated is better than truth—it is accepted as an act of faith, which is better than a point of fact. This is
Empty has a unique capacity for building and strengthening the social
one of the most heinous acts of this man: the mugging of the meaning,
infrastructure that connects people and places through participatory
the disassembling of rhetoric until certainty is stripped away from truth like
platforms. This commitment resonates throughout Hold These Truths and
flesh from a carcass.”
through a series of public events organized by Raquel de Anda, Director
4
of Public Engagement with Mica Le John, Education Programs Manager.
What is the role of art in this climate of urgency? Can it help to underscore
Collectively, the exhibition and these programs address timely issues
truths to combat alternative facts? Can it be an illusion that reveals the
such as Media Bias, Immigration, Climate Change, and Labor and Legal
truth? Can it be (as artist Mel Chin argues) a catalyst? More to the point:
Documentation in varied forms such as walking tours that unpack how
Can art even make a claim to be about truth at all? These questions fuel
meaning and truth are creative processes, Wikipedia edit-a-thons, and
the exhibition Hold These Truths, organized in response to this complex
performance workshops that locate current events within the body.
and critical moment. 5
Using an array of creative strategies across a variety of media—editing,
The passage of time and the theme of empowerment are also key
than just a larger-than-life celebration of revolutionary figures in the trans
present-day United States, e.g., disdain for human rights, rampant sexism,
reframing, recontextualizing, culture-jamming—the artists in Hold These
corporate power, corruption and suppression of labor.
elements in Michael Sharkey’s long-term photo documentary project
women’s fight for equal rights: it underscores the lack of inclusion of
Truths urge us to scrutinize the prevailing politics of deceit, to challenge
QUEER KIDS. The portraits in this series, which began in 2006, spurn
transgender women in historical and contemporary feminist movements.
the debasement of facts and American ideals, and to consider the
harmful generalizations while celebrating diversity and toughness in the
Qualities considered characteristic of being a woman or feminine are
Trump’s favored news channel, Fox News, is the main target of Nancy
implications of today’s assault on truth. By radically appropriating the
face of prejudice. By challenging not only social biases and stereotypes,
completely dismissed in the large scale color pencil drawing Crazy
Chunn’s Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear (2016), a satirical series
dominant frameworks to explore counternarratives, they expose the
but also normative perceptions of gay youth, Sharkey, who grew up in the
Bitches (2016). From afar the piece reads as an ornate floral gift-wrapping
that repositions the paranoid bird as a paradigm for the post-9/11
1980’s, amplifies the queer voices of a younger generation. QUEER KIDS
pattern, however, camouflaged within lies a text written by the radical
culture of fear that feeds the 24-hour news cycle. In Chunn’s remix, the
hollowness of proliferating misrepresentations, in the past and present.
encapsulate the complexity and spectral qualities of sexual orientation and
material feminist group, Some Crazy Bitches, that proudly refuses “the
falling acorn is replaced by a television. In the flying sparks, she inserts
The past and present collide in the video I Want A Dyke For President
gender, featuring personal statements of strength and self-awareness.
mechanisms that create and maintain identities of womanhood.”
visual quotations from news, advertising, clip art and cartoons, repeated
(2017), adapted by filmmaker Adinah Dancyger during the lead-up to the
“’Gay’ is really ‘nice’ and ‘friendly,’ says the eponymous subject of
election, and performed by Mykki Blanco, a genderqueer, HIV-positive performance artist and rapper, who recites activist Zoe Leonard’s “I Want a President,” a poem written in the midst of the 1992 presidential election,
Patrick (2010). “Queer is in your face and tough and calling people out
sensationalism. The recontextualization of a children’s book serves to
and not being afraid to speak your mind and that’s more me, more of
Madsen’s ongoing series ephemera, featuring collections of information
amplify the infantilization of American culture, where fear-mongering and
what I’m about.”
and ideas printed on small pieces of paper that muse on a wide range
fake news often dominate conversations.
of topics, from art’s role in the economy and independence movements
when poet/activist Eileen Myles ran as an “openly female candidate.” By proposing alternatives to white, heteronormative, privileged male
Confidence, beauty and strength also exude from Trans Liberation, a
around the world, to various nations’ statistics on mass killings.
The creative team Unlimited, Ltd. also employs the comic format in Are
candidates, the video and the poem it recalls, suggest socioeconomic
large-scale photo series by feminist and social activist Andrea Bowers.
Economically produced and available as PDFs on the artist’s website,
You Powered by God? (2017), a reframing of the clean energy debate
and political disempowerment as a valid starting point for presidential
Created in collaboration with artist and organizer Ada Tinnell, the work
ephemera—mailed to art world colleagues and friends, as well as
as a cosmic choice between Heaven (solar and wind power, from the
candidacy. Fueled by the fear-mongering rhetoric of the Reagan and Bush
appropriates and reinterprets historical activist ephemera from Bowers’
politicians and mass media outlets—echo the use of the postal service as
skies above) and Hell (fossil fuels extracted from deep below). The
years, I Want a Dyke For President is not only particularly relevant to our
personal collection, featuring iconic trans-feminist activists of color as
a subversive circumvention of more “official” systems of art distribution.
installation adopts the Christian iconography of an altar triptych and a
current crisis—a year after the election of Donald Trump—but shows how
models. Throwing Bricks (Johanna Saavedra), from 2016, for example,
Serving as a warning about the growing nationalism under the Trump
baptismal font filled with miniature graphic comic books to spread the
a recontextualization of past texts, images, formats and methodologies
depicts the titular Latina trans activist throwing a brick down a Los
era, ephemera 32: pocket reference is a business card that lists the early
clean energy gospel. The books appropriate the Christian Evangelical
have the power to offer critical re-examinations of what may often be
Angeles street directly at the viewer, in a reference to a poster from the
signs of fascism as featured on a poster from the United States Holocaust
“cartoon tracts” printed by Chick Publications, a well-known series of
May 1968 student uprisings in Paris. However, Trans Liberation is more
Museum, highlighting the disturbing parallels between 1920’s Europe and
more than 250 gospel tracts (with a circulation of over 800,000,000)
considered self-evident. 6
and repackaged in different colors in an unrelenting regurgitation of The notion of ephemera takes on an even more defining role in Loren
7
that condemn a range of sins, such as homosexuality, masturbation
We Are In Crisis (2016), a collaboration with the collective Winter Count,
forced out of a neighborhood by rampant development, rebranding
Times articles, altering headlines, changing images and redacting
and cannibalism.
and Ati Maier’s 2016 video montage Dispatch from Standing Rock #3
and gentrification.
superfluous text to reveal an essential aspect of a story that is otherwise buried. The original Times headline on the shooting death of Michael
(which Luger narrated), provide a nuanced understanding of his connection to Standing Rock and efforts for mediation. While We Are
Market forces also animate Carey Young’s Cautionary Statement (2007),
Brown by a police officer, for example, was changed from “A Teenager
undergirds The Natural History Museum, an ongoing project by the
In Crisis serves as a gratitude offering to the water protectors opposed
which recontextualizes the disclaimers attached to forecasted earnings in
Grappling With Problems and Promise” to “A Teenager With Promise,”
collective and non-profit organization Not An Alternative. Operating at the
The conversation around the fossil fuel industry and climate justice
to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline—a poetic yet urgent
corporate annual reports. Installed near the reception desk by the artist’s
and its accompanying image of Brown in a baseball cap swapped out
intersection of art, activism and pedagogy, The Natural History Museum is
call to action—Dispatch from Standing Rock #3 documents the artist’s
request, the work might function as a warning for viewers to question
for an enlarged graduation photograph. Wheat-pasted on walls around
an expansive project that features pop-up exhibitions, a mobile museum,
distribution of 500 mirror shields for the water protectors on the Oceti
the true value of the works in the exhibition—or the ideas they seek to
the city and widely posted on social media, these revised articles
workshops and a robust online presence. Partnering with local community
Sakowin camp, and the ensuing performance. Luger’s reflective mylar on
express. Young continues to explore the absurdity of ascribing values in
constitute a new truth, finding distribution beyond the newspapers on
groups, scientists and museum staff, the project establishes a new space
which they are based.
ply-board “mirror shields” were inspired by women activists in the Ukraine
Counter Offer (2008), a two-part work in which one part offers Liberty; the
for scientific inquiry, free from the influence of corporate philanthropy,
who employed the tactic to reflect the images of riot police back at them.
other, Justice. But there’s a catch: Each offer is “automatically withdrawn
political lobbying and special interests. Through alternative tours,
While the shields may not ultimately provide physical protection from
on the making of a counter offer,” creating an endless legal loop in which it
Through re-enactment and crowdsourced testimony, Bayeté Ross Smith’s
recreations and re-enactments of diorama displays, facts that are often left
water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas, they serve as a symbolic,
is impossible to gain neither liberty or justice, a situation with which many
work lays bare the symbolic entanglement of American identification with
out of museum pedagogy (due to the economic influence of the fossil fuel
preemptive and peaceful strike against armed security forces.
are all too familiar.
whiteness and Christianity. Embedded within The New York Times for the documentary project POV (Point of View), Ross Smith—with colleagues
and chemical industries) are laid bare. In this reinvention of natural history, The exposure of living culture also plays a role in Dustina Sherbine’s
Artists dissecting the role of the media as opinion makers or ideological
Saleem Reshamwala and Logan Jaffe—became part of an initiative to
where indigenous cultures are presented as thriving and relevant—not
Core Samples (2016), the title of which refers to the geological research
silos form a central core of Hold These Truths. While there is a concern
develop digital and interactive media around how racism impacts daily
sealed in vitrines as historical artifacts.
methods of sampling deep underground cores of ancient ice to better
that serious journalism is being undermined by special interests and
life in America. Asking a variety of questions—”What makes someone
understand past eras. By using the cool rationality of science as a
a communications revolution that accelerates dubious claims and
American? How do you define American identity? When do you feel most
contemporary issues of land, water and air pollution find a new platform,
foil to investigate the emotional reality surrounding displacement,
opinion as fact, there is also distrust of a media elite that is often out of
American?—the interactive work Hyphen-Nation (2017) features American
artist Cannupa Hanska Luger communicates stories of complex indigenous
Sherbine’s core samples—consisting of construction materials, food,
touch with the public’s frustrations and plagued by bias. The ongoing
citizens of various ethnicities describing their struggle to belong in a nation
identities confronting 21st-century challenges, such as the environmental
personal items and trash, and accompanied by diagrams that analyze
racial bias in mainstream media is uncovered by Alexandra Bell’s series
that both embraces and rejects them. Visitors shared their own stories to
the excavated layers—uncover the personal testimonies of those
Counternarratives, in which she makes substantive edits to New York
fill in the gaps in American culture, contributing to an ongoing narrative.
Born on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, multidisciplinary
degradation of historic lands. A compilation of short films including 8
9
Racism and identity politics are at the core of Natalie Bookchin’s Now
circulated video still of the infamous 1991 police beating. Instead of the
White Shoes, she employs her own naked body to demarcate former
the resulting images have a ghostly beauty. Devoid of all the details that
he’s out in public and everyone can see (2017), which documents how
well-known image that zooms in on the four officers beating King, a more
slavery sites—burial grounds and slave markets in New York City, for
a traditional camera captures, the luminous figures appear dehumanized,
digital platforms have transformed and amplified political speech, opinion-
expansive view is presented: King’s body, rendered in silhouette as site
example—using photography to both document and reinsert the black
even alien—a rendering that highlights the political over the corporeal. Still,
mongering and racism during the Obama years. Compiled from an earlier
of trauma, draws attention to the crowd of officers encircling him who
figure into an idealized white American narrative. In 60 Centre Street, New
there is an undeniable tenderness in these images that—much like the
video installation of YouTube video diaries, the work was reformatted into
watched in collusion. Central Park Five (drawings 1-5), 2017, revisits a
York Supreme Court (2017), she stands naked in front of the New York
“camera” itself—inverts the lack of human detail into an intimate lament for
a film in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, making it more
courtroom scene with lawyers in the foreground, and the defendants in the
Supreme Court, gazing directly back at the viewer. Interrogating New
this displaced humanity, hidden behind the barbed wire of refugee camps,
readily available for distribution. Preceded by the disclaimer “I’m not a
headline-grabbing rape case waiting for the 1990 court ruling. Leonardo
York’s slaveholding history, her nakedness speaks to the vulnerability and
capturing what many cannot, or would prefer not, to see.
racist,” speakers offer prejudice as opinion. On President Obama, for
isolates the gestures, body language and facial expressions of the lawyers
dehumanization of the black female body, viscerally connecting history
example, they deliver monologues that betray outrage that a black man
and security guards, omitting the titular defendants, whose moniker
with our present moment through the transformation of a living form into
Invisible and often exploited, informal laborers are writ large and public
could reach the highest level of power. While Bookchin’s compilation of
denied them singular identities. The viewer is left to piece the scene
a monument to collective memory. The series My Country continues the
in the series Luxury Interrupted, a collaborative multimedia project of
these fragments into the continuity of a single artwork may support the
together without the original mnemonic device, challenging to witness
tradition of White Shoes with a focus on national monuments. Fragment
artist Ramiro Gomez and his partner, photographer and filmmaker David
contention that such scripts appear as both the cause and consequence
instead of look, and consider actual history instead of false memory. In
of Evidence, Statue of Liberty (2017), a portrait of the statue seemingly
Feldman. Painted, life-sized, cardboard cut-outs depict workers—nannies,
of our current political crisis, the video highlights the “us vs. them”
Testimony, a series of performative workshops commissioned for the
redacted by the use of a black bar running across the image—a graphic
gardeners, street cleaners—who toil behind the scenes to maintain the
mentality that resists the empathy needed to reach across political and
exhibition, participants will locate intensely contested current affairs within
disruption of a symbolism that has been lost on many.
archetypal southern California cityscape and lifestyle. Installed in public
ideological divides.
their bodies. Utilizing the shifting perspectives embedded in testimony, news reports and memory as a backdrop, Leonardo will guide participants
The invisible is also rendered visible by conceptual photographer Richard
serve as temporary monuments to living workers of Los Angeles
in translating their experiences into physical movements.
Mosse, whose ambiguous relationship to his medium is revealed in his film
communities. Nanny and Child, West Hollywood Park (2013), for example,
multidisciplinary artist Shaun Leonardo breaks down media’s complicity in
Incoming (2017), stills of which are on view. In this work, Mosse forgoes
is informed by Gomez’s own experience as a live-in nanny, where he
shaping, informing and circulating racial bias, and consequently, memories
While erasure may seem a paradoxical strategy for negotiating sites of
a regular camera, opting instead for military thermographic technology—
formed close relationships with other workers on his employer’s estate.
of past events. Through an anatomy of scene that employs strategies
Drawing from images and video footage of miscarriages of justice,
trauma, the insertion of the unclothed form into public space commands
normally used to locate and target enemies by detecting the presence of
This led him to begin creating collages; using architecture and interior
of extraction, omission and the dissection of an image into a sequence
attention upon the body in situ. Photographer Nona Faustine focuses
body heat—to make visible the human tragedies resulting from the mass
design magazines, he reinserted the bodies of laborers into immaculate
of parts, Leonardo challenges the culpability of the viewer’s gaze. The
on overlooked histories, identities and representation, with an emphasis
migrations of refugees across Europe, the Middle East and Africa fleeing
spaces, ultimately inspiring him to make a series of responsive paintings
on African-American history and her own ancestral past. In the series
violence and genocide. With their deep white glow of human presence,
emulating David Hockney’s graphic style, such as No Splash (2013) (after
charcoal drawing Rodney King (2017), for example, deliberates on a rarely 10
spaces, photographed in situ and left behind to chance, the artworks
11
Hockney’s 1967 A Bigger Splash), in which a pool cleaner is inserted into
Studio (2015–2017), a wall displays pieces from the studio, such as a
to anti-immigrant policies, echoing the experience of citizens of
facts. Fictional museums and companies, questionable legal quandaries
a pristine backyard swimming pool scene.
series of collaborative designs and activist posters, including ones from
occupied countries.
and religious tracts, editorial processes, truth-generating walks and performative workshops all assert multifarious legitimacies that observe
the Jornalero@App Poster Campaign, a collaboration with New Immigrant Esperanza Mayobre also focuses on themes of invisibility through
Community Empowerment (NICE). In 2016, Aramendi developed the
Riffing off various artistic strategies represented in Hold These Truths,
the right to challenge the very mechanisms that reject free expression
visual formats that reflect on travel, exploration, displacement and the
Jornalero Wage Theft App in collaboration with day laborers, community
Kamau Ware’s TRUTH = PROCESS (2017)—a text-based painting and
and participation. Hence the titular reference to the Declaration of
compartmentalization of various aspects of our lives. In Immigrant of the
organizers, artists and computer programmers in their first contribution
walking tours commissioned for the exhibition—explores the concept of
Independence: Hold These Truths is a fragment of a sentence that
Month (2007), she references the reward programs corporations use
to the new labor rights movement, bringing fair labor standards and
truth as a creative process. Intersecting conceptually, but independent
represents an historical proclamation of justice and incomplete history
to motivate employees. The empty frame and engraved plaque invites
immigrant rights together. The installation includes an LED counter made
from each other, Ware’s visual and physical intervention is a generative
of progress. Expressing cultural, political and social criticism, the
immigrant workers to insert their image, commemorating the invisible
in collaboration with Barrie Cline that chronicles the frequency of wage
process of truth-finding in the public realm, specifically the vicinity of the
counternarratives embodied in Hold These Truths seek to expose the
hardships and impact of immigrant labor on the overall economy. A native
theft during the course of the exhibition.
exhibition site, Hell’s Kitchen. Ware is a visual storyteller and founder
vacuity of propagating misrepresentations, a collective effort to correct
of Black Gotham Experience, an expansive and interactive storytelling
the telling of events. There is a quote—apocryphally attributed to George
Venezuelan, Mayobre often responds to her own experiences as an
12
American immigrant, living in constant translation between English and
In the politically led crackdown on undocumented immigrants (often
project that locates and celebrates the impact of the African Diaspora
Orwell—that encapsulates both our disconcerting moment in time and
Spanish. In the ironic Welcome to the Yunaited Estai (2012), she mimics
exploited and targeted by the same people), Jenny Polak sees an
on New York City through historical research, creative mixers, graphic
the counternarratives that have risen to the call of resistance: “In a time of
the mispronunciation of United States, home to the largest immigrant
unbroken chain from slavery to the mass incarceration of black people,
novels and walking tours. Unlike a traditional tour guided by a single voice,
universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
population in the world. The welcome mat also serves as a larger
and the demarcation and deportation of (predominantly) people of color.
Black Gotham Experience engages participants in conversation while en
symbolic reference to the hospitality shown to some over others.
Protection and sanctuary for people without immigration papers underpins
route. Using devices that engage the body in participatory fact-finding
her ICE-Escape Signs and Design for the Alien Within, an ongoing series
procedures, TRUTH = PROCESS unpacks how meaning—and truth
The experiences of undocumented immigrants are reframed through
of site-specific signs (based on existing fire evacuation signs) located
itself—is ultimately an imaginative process that can be agitated
creative organizing techniques and activism by artist and educator Sol
near main emergency exit doors, revealing safe routes undocumented
and manipulated.
Aramendi. In The Worker’s Studio, a series of nomadic collaborative art
immigrants can take in case of raids by the Immigration and Customs
projects, she reflects the needs and urgency of the groups who come
Enforcement agency. In Design for the Alien Within, a fictional design
At turns disturbing, confrontational and ironic, the various artistic
together to learn about labor rights and issues affecting immigrant workers
company and website offering furniture with built-in hiding spaces, Polak
strategies in Hold These Truths reveal an array of ways in which we
through performance, art making and dialogue. In the installation Worker’s
underscores immigrant-citizen power in promoting acts of disobedience
can approach our contemporary condition of fake news and alternative
Rachel Gugelberger, Manon Slome and Nicole Pollard
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Plates
SOL ARAMENDI
ALEXANDRA BELL
NATALIE BOOKCHIN
ANDREA BOWERS
NANCY CHUNN
ADINAH DANCYGER & MYKKI BLANCO
NONA FAUSTINE
Ramiro Gomez & David Feldman
SHAUN LEONARDO
CANNUPA HANSKA LUGER
LOREN MADSEN
ESPERANZA MAYOBRE
RICHARD MOSSE
NOT AN ALTERNATIVE
JENNY POLAK DUSTINA SHERBINE UNLIMITED, LTD.
MICHAEL SHARKEY BAYETÉ ROSS SMITH Kamau Ware
CAREY YOUNG
SOL ARAMENDI | Worker’s Studio, 2015 – 2017 (detail) | Jornalero@App Poster Campaign, in collaboration with NICE, New Immigrant Community Empowerment | Dimensions: 17 x 11 inches | Courtesy of the artist.
ALEXANDRA BELL | A Teenager With Promise, 2017 | Inkjet on bond paper, 8 x 6 feet each | Photo: Darryl Richardson. Courtesy of the artist.
Kamau Ware giving a Black Gotham Experience Walking Tour, August 2017 | Photo: Kay Hickman, Courtesy of Black Gotham Experience
NATALIE BOOKCHIN | Now he’s out in public and everyone can see, 2017 | Video, 24 minutes | Courtesy of Icarus Films.
ANDREA BOWERS in collaboration with Ada Tinnell | Throwing Bricks (Johanna Saavedra), 2016 | Archival pigment print, 78 ¾ x 58 ¾ x 2 ¼ inches framed | Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York.
NANCY CHUNN | Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear: Selected Index (Black), 2016 | Giclée print on canvas with acrylic paint, 30 x 30 inches | Photo: Casey Dorobek, Courtesy of the Artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.
ADINAH DANCYGER & MYKKI BLANCO | I Want a Dyke for President, 2016 | Video (HD), 2:02 minutes | Courtesy of Dazed & Confused.
NONA FAUSTINE | 60 Centre Street, New York Supreme Court, 2016 | Digital c-print archival pigment print, 30 x 42 inches framed | Courtesy of the artist.
Ramiro Gomez and David Feldman | Nanny and Child, West Hollywood Park, 2013 | Archival pigment print, 2017, 32.5 x 32.5 inches framed, Edition of 10 | Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles.
CANNUPA HANSKA LUGER | Mirror Shield Project, 2017 (detail) | Drone Image Still: Rory Wakemup | Courtesy of Cannupa Hanska Luger.
SHAUN LEONARDO | Rodney King, 2017 (detail) | Charcoal on paper, with two-way mirrored tint on frame, 33.5 x 46.5 inches framed | Courtesy of the artist.
LOREN MADSEN | ephemera #32: pocket reference, 2017 | Offset print, 2 x 3.5 inches | Courtesy of the artist.
ESPERANZA MAYOBRE | Welcome to the Yunaited Estai, 2012 | Mixed media, 30 x 20 inches, Edition 2 of 60 | Courtesy of the artist.
RICHARD MOSSE | Still from Incoming #99, 2016 | Digital c-print on metallic paper, 12 ¼ x 21 x 1 ¾ inches framed, Edition 1 of 5, with 2 artist proofs | Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Not An Alternative\ | Exhibiting The Gaze, Tiger | Lightbox, backlit film, 38 x 38 inches | Photo Mon Iker. Courtesy of The Natural History Museum.
ENTRANCE YOU ARE HERE
NO EXIT VIA MEZZ.
NO EXIT VIA ROOF
10th Avenue
BACK EXIT
36th Street
In the event of an ICE raid do not use front exits JENNY POLAK | ICE-Escape Sign: Nathan Cummings Foundation, 2017 | Inkjet print face-mounted on Plexiglas, 16 x 12 inches | Courtesy of the artist | Commissioned by No Longer Empty.
BAYETÉ ROSS SMITH | Hyphen-Nation, 2017 | Multi-media digital video, 22.5 minutes | Courtesy of Bayeté Ross Smith, POV and The New York Times.
MICHAEL SHARKEY | Patrick, 2010 | Digital photo giclée print, 30 x 40 inches framed, Edition 1 of 4 | Courtesy of the artist.
DUSTINA SHERBINE | Core Samples, 2016 (installation view), “Bronx Calling: The Fourth AIM Biennial”, The Bronx Museum of the Arts | Mixed media, Dimenions variable. Inset: Core Sample Diagram: Bronx Bricks, 2016 | Graph paper, 17 x 11 inches | Photos: Dustina Sherbine, Courtesy of the artist.
UNLIMITED, LTD. | Are You Powered By God?, 2017 (detail of tract cover) | Mixed media, Dimensions variable | Commissioned by No Longer Empty.
CAREY YOUNG | Cautionary Statement, 2007 | Vinyl text, Dimensions variable, Edition 1 of 3, 1AP. Thanks to Jay Swanson, Dorsey and Whitney LLP, Minneapolis for legal assistance. © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Acknowledgements
No Longer Empty
No Longer Empty is grateful to the Board and staff of Nathan Cummings
No Longer Empty activates engagement with art and social issues through
Board of Directors
Foundation, especially Sunita Iqbal, Elizabeth MĂŠndez Berry, Artealia Gilliard,
site-responsive exhibitions, education, and public programs. Located
Nancy Schwartz-Weinstock, Co-Chair
Rouane Bayor, Teneil Luces and Joseph Augeri for their collaboration.
in distinctive urban settings, our work generates participatory platforms
Michael Steinberg, Co-Chair
that build and strengthen networks of cultural resources for artists and
Joanna Wu, Treasurer
Special thanks to the artists and Andrew Kreps Gallery, Black Gotham
communities. Since 2009, No Longer Empty has championed a roster
Amy Kaufman, Secretary
Experience, Charlie James Gallexry, Dazed & Confused, Jack Shainman
of artists across diverse practices through 28 exhibitions located in
Frances Beinecke
Gallery, Paula Cooper Gallery, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, SRI Fine Art
unexpected places. Staged throughout New York City, our projects create
April De Simone
Services, Reynard Loki, and to Curatorial Assistant Nicole Pollard.
a resonant presence in those unique spaces, which include a former
Julia Draganovic
retirement home in the Bronx, a historic bank in Long Island City Queens,
Naomi Hersson-Ringskog*
a former belt factory in Brooklyn, and an affordable living complex in Sugar
Jon Kurland
Hill Harlem. For more information, visit: www.nolongerempty.org.
Dara Metz
Our appreciation also goes to Michael Taylor for his design of this publication.
Alan Rosenbloom
Staff
Rivka Saker
Carol Stakenas, Executive Director
Manon Slome*
Manon Slome, Co-Founder & Chief Curator
Brett Ziccardi
Rachel Gugelberger, Curator & Director, NLE Lab Raquel de Anda, Director of Public Engagement
*Co-Founders
Mica Le John, Education Programs Manager Eva Vargas, Communications Coordinator 36
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Nathan Cummings Foundation
The Nathan Cummings Foundation is a family foundation rooted in the Jewish tradition of social justice and committed to democratic values, including fairness, diversity and community. It focuses on finding solutions to the two biggest problems of our time — the climate crisis and growing inequality. The Foundation invests in four focus areas to build a more just, vibrant, sustainable and democratic society: Inclusive Clean Economy; Racial and Economic Justice; Corporate and Political Accountability; and Voice, Creativity and Culture. For more information, visit: www.nathancummings.org.
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Hold These Truths SOL ARAMENDI
ALEXANDRA BELL
NATALIE BOOKCHIN
ANDREA BOWERS
NANCY CHUNN NONA FAUSTINE SHAUN LEONARDO
ADINAH DANCYGER & MYKKI BLANCO Ramiro Gomez & David Feldman CANNUPA HANSKA LUGER
LOREN MADSEN
ESPERANZA MAYOBRE
RICHARD MOSSE
NOT AN ALTERNATIVE
JENNY POLAK DUSTINA SHERBINE UNLIMITED, LTD.
MICHAEL SHARKEY BAYETÉ ROSS SMITH Kamau Ware
CAREY YOUNG