NEW YORK.- The American Effect will explore a wide range of global perceptions of America in works of art made since 1990 and the rise of America as the lone global superpower. With 47 artists and filmmakers, and three collaborative groups, selected from 30 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, South and North America, the show will survey works in a broad range of media, including drawing, photography, film, installation, painting, sculpture, video, and Internet art. Curated by Lawrence Rinder, the Whitney’s Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator of Contemporary Art, The American Effect will be on view from July 3 to October 12, 2003.
"The timing of The American Effect is very much related to a renewed urgency about this subject, with America now increasingly coming to terms with how it is perceived abroad," said Maxwell L. Anderson, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum. "With this exhibition, the Whitney looks at how artists, primarily non-American, depict, imagine and respond to America and its presence in the world."
To organize the exhibition, curator Lawrence Rinder traveled widely over the course of the past year, seeking out art and artists in Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam, among other countries. The exhibition will include work by a number of Americans working abroad, as well as American artists documenting non-American perspectives on the United States.
Commented Rinder, "This show carries on the Whitney’s longtime commitment to illuminating the times in which we live. America has a profound influence on the daily lives of the world’s citizens, and the image of the United States has come to bear almost mythological weight. The American Effect is about the ways in which America’s real and imagined effects intertwine to create a compelling source of themes, images, and ideas for artists around the world."
The works convey a range of responses, from anger and antagonism to affection, warmth, and humor. For some, America remains an embodiment of utopian dreams. Japanese artist Miwa Yanagi, for example, portrays the imagined future of a young woman in an idealized old age racing ecstatically across the Golden Gate Bridge on a motorcycle, hair streaming, a young man in sunglasses by her side. Congolese artist Bodys Isek Kingelez’s fantastical sculptural model of Lower Manhattan in the year 3021 captures a sense of America as a place of extraordinary wealth, abundance, and possibility. Mark Lewis, a Canadian-born artist, presents a filmic tour around an Edenic Malibu garden in which scantily clothed adult film stars wander in alluring silence.
Others look into American history to represent episodes that proved crucial in shaping America’s identity. Senegalese sculptor Ousmane Sow reinterprets America’s campaign against its indigenous people in a tableau of life-size figures crafted of wire, earth, and cloth depicting the 1876 defeat of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Yongsuk Kang’s understated black-and-white photographs document the cumulative effect of 50 years of American test bombing outside the South Korean village of Maehyang.
For others, contemporary events become the theme for works in a wide variety of media. Pakistan-based artist Saira Wasim captures the ambiguities and ironies of America’s paternalistic relationship to Pakistan in her series of Moghul-style miniatures representing Pakistani head of state General Pervez Musharraf and US President George W. Bush. A three-channel video work by Patricia Clark, Meira Marrero Díaz and José Angel Toirac explores the differences between Cuban and American media coverage of the Elian Gonzalez affair.
The exhibition will also include a program of feature-length documentary films and videos. Among these are works that explore the dreams and disappointments of immigrants to the U.S., such as Sandeep Ray’s Leaving Bakul Bagan, Marlo Poras’ Mai’s America, Chantal Akerman’s From the Other Side, and Sherine Salama’s Wedding in Ramallah. Other works, like Stephanie Black’s Life and Debt, explore America’s complex influence abroad, from the impact of its economic policies, to the subtle ways America’s military actions effect daily life throughout the world, as revealed in Heiner Stadler’s Eat, Sleep, No Women.
The catalogue accompanying the exhibition will include essays touching on issues raised by the works of art, including an essay by curator Lawrence Rinder that will present the central theme of the exhibition and discuss each artist’s work in this context. Other contributors include: Tariq Ali, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Ian Buruma, Nawal El Saadawi, Caryl Phillips, Elena Poniatowska, Edward Said, and Luc Sante. The catalogue will also include an annotated bibliography assembled by Sean Rocha and a comic by Aleksandar Zograf describing his perceptions of America, both as a visitor here and as a witness to the American-led NATO bombings of his country, Serbia.
Public programs will focus on the artistic, sociological and historical themes of the exhibition. In September, the museum will present a panel discussion situating the exhibited works in a broader social, political and cultural context. Museum educators will lead school tours in which they will explore some of the more challenging ideas the exhibition will present about America and Americans. For teachers, several professional development workshops will include guided tours, hands-on activities for looking at and learning about the artwork, and discussions about integrating the artwork and themes into the curricula. In addition to special programs, free docent tours will be provided to the public.
On Tuesday, July 15 at 7 pm, curator Lawrence Rinder will lead a tour of the exhibition and discuss the works in The American Effect. Admission is $8 (members, senior citizens, and students with valid ID $6). Reservations are required; the public may call 1 (877) WHITNEY or purchase tickets at the Museum Admissions Desk.