Taryn Simon‘s work results from rigorous research and investigation into the power and structure of secrecy and the precarious nature of survival. Combining photography, text and graphic design, her conceptual projects address the production and circulation of knowledge and the politics of representation. Simon’s images and texts reveal the invisible space between language and the visual world—a space in which multiple truths and fantasies are constructed, and where translation and disorientation continually occur. In her work, history—its classifications, its contents—seems the stuff of projection.
Biography
Taryn Simon (b. 1975) is a multidisciplinary artist who has worked in photography, text, sculpture and performance. Her practice involves extensive research, guided by an interest in systems of categorization and classification. Simon’s works have been the subject of monographic exhibitions at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Tate Modern, London (2011); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2011); and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007). Permanent collections include Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, the Guggenheim Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her work is included in the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). She is a graduate of Brown University and a Guggenheim Fellow. Simon was born in New York, where she currently live. Her work was most recently shown in a solo exhibition at the Jeu de Paume in Paris.
As part of the Canadian Art Foundation International Speaker Series Presented by BMO.