Nine Picks from the Litter
The 2008 Whitney Biennial
By Edward Rubin

	Edward Rubin is a New York City based writer and artist. His writings appear regularly in such publications as Art & Antiques, Sculpture, Hispanic Outlook, New York Arts and Art Fairs International magazines.

Karen Kilimnik, "The castle great staircase, Scotland", water soluble oil color on canvas , 14 x 11 in (35.6 x 27.9 cm). Collection of The Stephanie and Peter Brant Foundation.

Turning the exhibition’s curators into “creators” Weinberg goes on the say that given the fact that no single underlying theme emerged to connect the works of art it should come as no surprise that to organize an exhibition of such diverse material, besides being a calculated response, is itself an act of origination. This curatorial feat, neither neutral nor objective, as Weinberg is quick to note, is a by-product of the curators’ sensibilities, knowledge, training, and artistic connections, all of it leavened, by chance. In the end,” the director concludes, “the curators, like all of us, are reacting to what they have had the occasion to see and experience.”

The Biennial’s two curators, Henriette Huldisch and Shamim M. Momin, on the same page as Weinberg, voice similar explanation in their catalog essays. Noting that art since the late 60s has been characterized by pervasive and increasing dispersal, decentralization, and heterogeneity Huldisch writes that it is inherently impossible to present a properly historical account of the present. The Beckett quoting curator attributes the difficulty of categorizing to the tenor of the new millennium, which is distinguished above all by polarization of art and artist and by an accompanying sense of anxiety brought on by the uncertain social, political and economic climate of the times. Taking the argument a bit further -- the theory quoting Momin, who talks about transformative reconfiguration of time and space as one of the central points connecting many of the works in the Biennial, states that artists in the immediate reality of our uncertain sociopolitical times, rather than positing a definitive answer or approach, are exhibiting, in all modes and practices, a passion for the search.

Like, Weinberg, I can’t help but quote something -- it seems both timely and relevant -- that Susan Sontag wrote almost half a century ago (and this before the deluge of the Biennales and Art Fairs) in Against Interpretation. “Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience. All of the conditions of modern life -- its material plentitude, its sheer crowdedness -- conjoin to dull our sensory facilities.” Sontag concludes from this state of affairs that “The function of criticism should be to show how it is, what it is, even that it is what it is, rather then show what it means.” While this caveat emptor approach applies to critics, and as Weinberg would have it, to curators too, it becomes somewhat problematical for the fast-walking general public when the art on view -- despite the menu-like wall labels explaining how art and artist came to be -- appears to have little or no meaning to anybody but the artist. However, on the upside, for those addicted few who have a strong need and an acute ability to mine such clusters of clutter for any evidence of life -- I confess to be one of them -- such a disparate display of ideas, however insular or arcane, does serve a purpose greater than ones self.

That said, for whatever reasons, be it time or budget constraints or countless favors owed to the art market -- galleries, collectors and artists -- the Biennial’s curators, in supporting their current state of the contemporary art world arguments, did not cast their nets all that widely. Out of the 87 artists on view, virtually all are living and working n New York City and Los Angeles. Of the 54 artists who live in New York City, 23 are from another state, 14 another country. Out of LA’s 33 artists, 11 are from another state, and only one from another country. As far as age, half of the artists were born in the 70s, one third in the 60s, and fifteen percent in the 40s and 50s. As far as gender, 51 are male, 36 female. From this supposedly culturally diagnostic mélange I managed to ferret out nine works -- 5 film/videos and 4 installations -- that managed to both engage my eye, entertain my brain, and of course give me something to write about.

In Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn’s video Can’t Swallow It, Can’t Spit It Out (2006), described by the artists as “a portrait of civilian anxiety in a time of war,” artist/actress Khan, and Dodge, her off-screen cameraman and director, are seen roaming Los Angeles looking for Rodney King-like action. Dressed as a Valkyrie, with a Viking hat, a hunk of fake cheese under her arm, and an unexplained blood stain on the side of her mouth, Kahn, regales us with stories and crazy ramblings, a few which begin, “When I was in hell…” As fate would have it, all they find in their searching is the blank, institutional walls, empty spaces, and near-desolate freeways of the urban city. Though the fast swirling face of current events are temporarily out of view -- silence tells all -- we never once forget, perhaps, with 9/11 still hovering somewhere in the background, that the entire world can come crashing down upon us at any given moment.

Olaf Breuning, "Still from Home 2", High-definition digital video, color, sound; 30 min. Collection of the artist. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.

Julia Meltzer and David Thorne, "Still from not a matter of if but when: brief records of a time when expectations were repeatedly raised and lowered and people grew exhausted from never knowing if the moment was at hand or was still to come". Video projection, color, sound; 32 min. Collection of the artists.

Phoebe Washburn, While Enhancing a Diminishing Deep Down Thirst, the Juice Broke Loose (the Birth of a Soda Shop), 2008 Installation views from 2008 Biennial (March 6-June 1, 2008) Courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y.

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