“As the things around us change, as environments shift, as buildings change, or skylines change, my hope is not for any particular form of memory, but that this allows a site for memory, and can hold a resonant place in people’s minds into the future. Not as my work, but as something they might have experienced here as a result of some of these questions, or the way these things appeared in the landscape.” — Chloë Bass
While the Studio Museum in Harlem is closed during the construction of its new building, they are embarking on a series of projects throughout the neighborhood of Harlem. One of these projects is Wayfinding, a site-specific public art project throughout St. Nicholas Park by young conceptual artist Chloë Bass (b. 1984, New York, NY). The exhibition is on view through September 27, 2020. A new series from All Arts called Box Burners covers artists across genres who “redefin[e] their fields through works that challenge the norms that peers and audiences have come to expect… These creators aren’t just outside the box — they’ve burned the box”
In this episode of Box Burners, we hear from Bass, along with Thelma Golden and Legacy Russell of the Studio Museum, and take a tour of the installation.
From the Studio Museum:
The Studio Museum in Harlem presents Chloë Bass: Wayfinding, the conceptual artist’s first institutional solo exhibition. This monumental commission features twenty-four site-specific sculptures that gesture toward the structural and visual vernacular of public wayfinding signage. The exhibition begins with and revolves around three central questions, poetically penned by the artist and featured throughout the park in billboard form: How much of care is patience? How much of life is coping? How much of love is attention?
Through a combination of text and archival images, Bass’s sculptures activate an eloquent exploration of language, both visual and written, encouraging moments of private reflection in public space.