Guild Hall opens its 2017 summer exhibition season with "Taryn Simon: The Innocents," an exhibition that explores photograph's role as witness and tool in blurring the line between truth and fiction. Simon's photography series "The Innocents," documents the stories of people who were incarcerated for violent crimes and were later cleared as innocent.
"Taryn Simon: The Innocents" opens at Guild Hall on June 17 and continues on view through July 30, 2017. A Members Only Reception takes place on Saturday, June 17 2017. The show opens to the public on Sunday, June 18, 2017. On Sunday, June 25, 2017, a Panel Discussion with the artist and Innocent Project Co-Directors Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck takes place at 3 p.m.
The Innocents (2002), an early and influential work by Taryn Simon, was first exhibited at MoMA PS1 in 2003. Guild Hall re-presents the work at a moment in history when the lines between truth and falsehood are being continuously manipulated and redrawn.
Through photographs, text and film, Simon confronts photography's ability to blur fact and fiction--an ambiguity that can have severe, even lethal consequences. The exhibition coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal organization that works to reform the criminal justice system.
Aligning with the artist's wishes to have her art experienced in totality, Hamptons Art Hub is not publishing preview images. In doing so, readers are afforded the chance to experience the full power of The Innocents in person without preamble.
Taryn Simon (b. 1975) is a conceptual artist whose practice involves rigorous research and investigation into power and the structure of secrecy, especially when formalized, with her work exposes emotional vulnerabilities. "Taryn Simon: The Innocents" is her second solo show at Guild Hall. In 2009, she exhibited her series "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar," a photography series revealing scenes from restricted or rarely discovered sites across the United States.
Most recently in New York City, she presented "Taryn Simon: An Occupation of Loss" at Park Avenue Armory in September 2016. The work combined performance, architecture, sculpture and sound in a work that explored the boundaries of grief. Simon is currently working on an adaption for a London installation with a book in process, according to M.H. Miller for the New York Time's T Magazine.
Taryn Simon's work has been exhibited internationally including at Tate Modern (London); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow); The Albertinum (Dresden); Jeu de Paume (Paris) and others. Her work is held in the permanent collections of major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, Centre Georges Pompidou, Tate Modern, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and others.
She is based in New York and has ties to The Hamptons. Her art is represented by Gagosian.
_____________________________
BASIC FACTS: "Taryn Simon: The Innocents" is on view at Guild Hall Museum from June 17 to July 30, 2017. On Sunday, June 25, 2017, a Panel Discussion with the artist and Innocent Project Co-Directors Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck takes place at 3 p.m. Admission is free. Guild Hall is located at 158 Main Street, East Hampton, NY 11937. www.guildhall.org.
______________________________
Copyright 2017 Hamptons Art Hub LLC. All rights reserved.