“It smells like bologna in here,” Sam said. He meant bologna sausage, aka ‘baloney’. We were at the Whitney Biennial, and he’d been further into the room than I had. Here’s what we found when we went to investigate —
Claim: Whitney Biennial Version – Pope.L aka William Pope.L. The hand stitched banner above is by artist Cauleen Smith. (I’m fond of the symmetry of the two red bags)
This is a grid of 2,755 slices of bologna, each tacked onto the appropriately pink background with a black and white photocopy portrait attached —
Detail – Claim: Whitney Biennial Version – Pope.L aka William Pope.L
Playing with words and numbers, the artist’s ‘claim’ is that the number is related to New York’s percentage of Jewish population, though the photographs were chosen randomly. See that drip in the photo above? We were there a couple of weeks after the exhibition opened, and the passage of time was wreaking a little havoc with the materials in this piece.
Greasy Art Stuff – nope, it’s not archival.
The curator’s note tells us that Pope.L has made other versions of this work, many focusing on Black subjects, and goes on to say that “Claim (Whitney Version) plays with our tendency to project ourselves onto numbers and stokes our awareness that such counting often lays the groundwork for systematic acts of discrimination.”
Conceptual art can challenge the viewer in ways that strictly visual art does not. Still, it’s rewarding to see it through, even though it’s dependent on our patience in being willing to read about it.
Um, there may be one potential problem here —
We went on to view the next floor, so can’t say what happened when dog met art. Hopefully, training prevailed.
Claim won the the Bucksbaum Award, which recognizes one artist from each Biennial exhibition. The Whitney will host a show of Pope.L’s work this fall.
What do you think of this exhibition?
More on the Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual
I do not get the psychology of the numerology but did the bologna’s smell linger longa?
There were trays on the floor for the oil to drip into. I would think it might get pretty rancid by show’s end. We were there after it had been up a couple of weeks. (I still wonder about the dog!)
Is that…real bologna sausage? If it is, I’d be very hungry at the exhibition.
Yes, the real thing. We’re vegetarians, so didn’t get the hunger effect. Now that I think of it, I should have looked more carefully, in curiosity to see if any pieces were missing!
I’m guessing the museum didn’t let animals in the room… Very interesting they are the real thing. That’s real art for you.
I don’t know if they can refuse a service animal. But then, not sure if this pup was a service animal or an “emotional support” one. (I saw a service dog here in the library last week!)
Clever concept, but decaying materials are not pleasant. In the future the work will only exist in photos. Bit like Lady Gaga’s meat dress. I suppose it is meant to have shock value associating people with hundreds of pieces of meat but the smell must have been challenging. I hope the dog did not get food poisoning!
I think in the world of challenging art exhibitions it must get harder and harder to come up with new concepts. When I go to the Biennials, I know there will be things I don’t ‘get’ and a lot of the value in it, for me, is to be a little shocked, and to have new things to think about before coming around to some understanding. And when you think about it, a lot of art since the 1950s isn’t archival.
That certainly qualifies as unusual! I would say I like the idea behind the work, but I don’t love the look of dripping bologna!
Yes, the drips are visually challenging. (I think the first thing I said was ‘Ewwww!’ But, I did stay to look.) The Biennial never disappoints when it comes to challenging work.