Artist Taryn Simon's new exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a study in quantitative excess. Over nearly a decade, Simon produced over 1,700 photographs, videos, and sculptures for her show, which opened in September as the museum’s first solo photography exhibition and its largest debut of new artwork. Her method relies on exhaustive research and prodigious effort — metrics she makes plain, including walking 30,000 steps in a day, according to the Wall Street Journal. The centerpiece, “Father Country I Do Love You,” stems from conversations with an unnamed FBI agent who claimed involvement in nearly every major political upheaval from the Cold War to the first Trump election. Simon transforms these stories into 42 color-coded sequences, photographing figures like a 1990s drug dealer and a now-aging Jodie Foster. Despite moments of striking imagery, the exhibition feels overwrought and self-indulgent, buried beneath banal mappings of American history.
Simon’s earlier work, like “The Innocents” (2000–03), effectively visualized power with precision. But here, the sheer volume of material overwhelms, leaving strong photographs submerged in affectation. The Guggenheim commissioned and acquired the work, yet offered little editorial guidance. At its core, the show asks whether numbers hold power that images alone cannot — but the answer is lost in the noise.
The exhibition runs through January at the Guggenheim.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing