Language in Times of Miscommunication
Mar 4 - Aug 27, 2023
This exhibition presents artworks that use various forms of language to critically examine the complexities of social reality during times of rampant miscommunication.
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) presents Language in Times of Miscommunication featuring artwork that incorporates various forms of language (poetry, speculative fiction, and slang), modes of communication (propaganda, protest, social media, and advertising), and research materials (archives, political documents, and the news) that together form a timely exchange about the slippery relationship between opinion, fact, and fiction, within the construct of our collective reality.
Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, argues that homo sapiens surpassed other species by creating complex languages, giving them the ability to articulate “things that exist purely in [the] imagination, such as gods, states, money, and human rights.” Over thousands of years of social evolution, human perception actualized fictions as core principles of civilization, reinforcing imagined hierarchies of power and influence. By examining past events and current actions through art that is critical of social reality we can begin to reveal the fictions that have informed society as we know it.
While this line of inquiry resonates globally, Language in Times of Miscommunication focuses on the United States to consider how the nation’s polemic atmosphere and increasingly divided reality is information by the redefinition of truth (reality that is possibly outside of human comprehension) as that which upholds personal ideology. Removed from the constraints of social agreement and systems of belief, as proposed by Trinh T. Minh-Ha in her book When the Moon Waxes Red, art critical of social reality can critique and deconstruct social norms by offering divergent perspectives. “To disrupt the existing systems of dominant values,” Trinh T. Minh-Ha writes, we must “see through the revolving door of all rationalizations” and “meet head on the truth of that struggle between fictions.” From this position, contemporary art can put forward a critical analysis of how divisive language and alternative narratives have unraveled U.S. society since 2016—a year that marked a shift in acknowledging the fallibility of communication.
Through the formats of exhibition, catalog, and special projects, Language in Times of Miscommunication acts as a platform to question how social fictions are created, interpreted, and, often, miscommunicated. Featuring work by Kristin Bauer, April Bey, Andrea Bowers, York Chang, Jeremy Dean, Jeffrey Gibson, Jenny Holzer, Christopher Jagmin, Glenn Ligon, Patrick Martinez, Elizabeth Moran, Ann Morton, Polymode, William Powhida, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Horacio Rodriguez, Safwat Saleem, and Anna Tsouhlarakis.
Organized by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Lauren R. O’Connell, curator of contemporary art, with Keshia Turley, curatorial assistant. Exhibition support provided by Presenting Partners Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation, Presenting Sponsors Mark J. and Elizabeth L. Kogan Family Trust, and Supporting Sponsor Peggy Sharp.
SMoCA Gallery Guide
SMoCA Gallery Guide: Language in the Times of Miscommunication, 2023 | English
SMoCA Guía de la Galería: El Lenguaje en Tiempos de Mala Comunicación | 2023 | Español
Artists
Kristin Bauer
(American, b. 1982) lives and works in Tempe, Arizona, and Los Angeles. She received a bachelor of arts from Arizona State University and a master of arts from Ottawa University. Select exhibiting institutions include The Empty Circle, Brooklyn; Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, Minnesota; H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art at Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; WhiteBox, New York City; ASU Art Museum, Tempe; Phoenix Art Museum; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; and Tucson Museum of Art.
April Bey
(Bahamian/American, b. 1987) lives and works in Los Angeles. She received a bachelor of fine arts from Ball State University and an master of fine arts from California State University, Northridge. Select exhibiting institutions include the California African American Museum, Los Angeles; Fullerton College Art Gallery, California; Kent State University Museum, Ohio; Lancaster Museum of Art and History, California; National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, Nassau; New Orleans African American Museum; and Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach.
Andrea Bowers
(American, b. 1965) lives and works in Los Angeles. She received a bachelor of fine arts from Bowling Green State University and a master of fine arts from California Institute of the Arts. Select exhibiting institutions include the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York City; the High Line, New York City; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. Major international exhibitions include the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art (2021), documenta 14 (2017), and the Triennale Milano (2017).
York Chang
(American, b. 1973) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a bachelor of arts and a juris doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. Select exhibiting institutions include the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena; Edel Assanti, London; Corner at Whitman-Walker, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions; MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams; Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California; Institute of Contemporary Art; and Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, California.
Jeremy Dean
(American, b. 1977) lives and works in Kekaha, HI. He received a BFA from Flagler College. Select exhibiting institutions include the 21c Museum, Louisville, KY; the Barton Art Museum, Wilson, NC; the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; the International Center of Photography, New York; the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, FL; the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville; the Queens Museum of Art, NY; and the Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston. His independent feature film Dare Not Walk Alone (2006) received the Independent Southern Filmmakers Tour Award and a NAACP Image Award nomination. Dean is a member of the Writers Guild of America.
Jeffery Gibson
(Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee/American, b. 1972) lives and works in Hudson, New York. He received a bachelor of fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a master of arts from the Royal College of Art, and an honorary doctorate from Claremont Graduate University. Select exhibiting institutions include the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas; Brooklyn Museum, New York City; Denver Art Museum; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and New Museum, New York. Major exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial (2019), Desert X (2017), and Prospect New Orleans (2015). Gibson has received a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award (2019), a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2015), and a Creative Capital Foundation Grant (2005).
Jenny Holzer
(American, b. 1950) lives and works in New York. She received a bachelor of fine arts from Ohio University, a master of fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a doctorate of fine arts from Pratt Institute. Select exhibiting institutions include the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao and New York City; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Tate Modern, London; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. Major international exhibitions include the Venice Biennale (2005) and documenta 8 (1987). Holzer has received numerous awards, including the International Medal of Arts from the U.S. Department of State (2017) and Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award, Americans for the Arts (2011).
Christopher Jagmin
(American, b. 1958) lives and works in Phoenix. He received a bachelor of fine arts from Indiana University, Bloomington. Select exhibiting institutions include the Chautauqua Visual Arts Galleries, New York; Truro Center for the Arts, Massachusets; Phoenix Art Museum; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; and Tucson Museum of Art. Jagmin has received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2022) and a Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson Grant for Artists through the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (2020), as well as completed a residency at The Studio at Mass MoCA (2019).
Glenn Ligon
(American, b. 1960) lives and works in New York. He received a bachelor of arts from Wesleyan University and participated in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Major exhibitions include Prospect New Orleans (2021), the Venice Biennale (1997 and 2015), the Berlin Biennale (2014), the Istanbul Biennale (2011), documenta 11 (2002), the Gwangju Biennale (2000), and the Whitney Biennial (1991, 1993). Ligon has received numerous awards, including the Rome Prize from the American Academy (2019), the Studio Museum in Harlem Wein Artist Prize (2009), the Skowhegan Medal for Painting (2006), a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2003), and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (1997).
Patrick Martinez
(American, b. 1980) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a bachelor of fine arts from ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena. Select exhibiting institutions include the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; California African American Museum, Los Angeles; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; Dallas Contemporary; Gana Art Center, Seoul; Intitute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Wisconsin; Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, San Jose, California; Rollins Museum of Art, Winter Park, Florida; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Tucson Museum of Art; and Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, California.
Elizabeth Moran
(American, b. 1984) lives and works in Brooklyn. She received a bachelor of fine arts from New York University and a master of fine arts and master of art from California College of the Arts. Select exhibiting institutions include the Contemporary Jewish Museum and California College of the Arts Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco; Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia; Hawn Gallery at Southern Methodist University, Dallas; Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, New York City; Stove Works, Chattanooga; and Studio la Città, Verona. Moran teaches at Parsons School of Design, the New School in New York City.
Ann Morton
(American, b. 1954) lives and works in Phoenix. She received a bachelor of fine arts and a master of fine arts from Arizona State University. Select exhibiting institutions include the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco; Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum; and Phoenix Art Museum. Her public projects have been supported by foundations including Americans for the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the U.S. State Department. Morton is a faculty associate at ASU, Mesa Community College, and Paradise Valley Community College.
Polymode
(American, est. 2014) is a bicoastal, LGBTQ+, and minority-owned studio led by partners Silas Munro and Brian Johnson. Studio members include Michelle Lamb, Randa Hadi, Audrey Davies, and Edgar Casarin. Polymode specializes in publications, exhibitions, websites, and visual design for clients including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City; Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond; the Venice Biennale (2017); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; New Museum, New York City; Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California; and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City.
William Powhida
(American, b. 1976) lives and works in New York. He received a bachelor of art from Syracuse University and a master of fine art from Hunter College. Select exhibiting institutions include the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; the Contemporary, Baltimore; Casa Maauad, Mexico City; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Dublin Contemporary; Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon; Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn; California College of the Arts Wattis Institute, San Francisco; Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; and White Columns, New York.
Kameelah Janan Rasheed
(American, b. 1985) lives and works in Brooklyn. She received a bachelor of arts from Pomona College and a master of arts from Stanford University. Select exhibiting institutions include Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Brooklyn Museum, Times Square Art Center, New Museum, Public Art Fund, and Studio Museum in Harlem in New York; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Kunsthalle Wien; National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare; and Mass Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams. Major exhibitions include Prospect New Orleans (2021) and the Venice Biennale (2017). Rasheed has received the Creative Capital Award (2022) and a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2021).
Horacio Rodriguez
(American, b. 1974) lives and works in Salt Lake City. He received a bachelor of arts from the University of Redlands and a master of arts from Montana State University. Select exhibiting institutions include the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts, Wyoming; Ogden Contemporary Arts, Utah; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City; and Arts Center of Western Colorado, Grand Junction. Rodriguez has received an Artists Career and Advancement Scholarship (2022) and a Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellowship (2020–21).
Safwat Saleem
(Pakistani/American, b. 1980) lives and works in Phoenix. He received a bachelor of science from the University of Southern Mississippi and a master of science from Arizona State University. Select exhibiting institutions include the Open Data Institute at the Cartagena Data Festival, Colombia; Puffin Cultural Forum, Teaneck, New Jersey; Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Tempe Public Art; and Vision Gallery, Chandler. He founded the online Pakistani music magazine Bandbaja and has received the American Advertising Award (2015 and 2021–22), a Rocky Mountain Emmy Award (2021), and a TED Fellowship (2013 and 2015).
Anna Tsouhlarakis
(Navajo/Creek/Greek/American, b. 1977) lives and works in Boulder, Colorado. She received a bachelor of arts from Dartmouth College and a master of fine arts from Yale University. Select exhibiting institutions include the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; Heard Museum, Phoenix; the Lab, San Francisco; Institute of American Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; NEON Foundation, Athens, Greece; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, Arizona. Tsouhlarakis has received the Creative Capital Award (2021) and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Scholarship (2007).
Related Event
Spring Opening Celebration
Friday, Mar 3, 2023, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
SMoCA
Join us for the opening of SMoCA’s newest exhibition, Language in Times of Miscommunication, and mingle with artists and fellow art lovers. Enjoy music by Miss Mixx in her Desert Disco Box, drinks from our cash bar, and light bites from a local food truck. Come celebrate with us!
Artworks
Babel, 2017-20
Synthetic polymer pigment, cast acrylic, milk crates Courtesy of the artistThis artwork is a reconfiguration of several sculptures by Bauer, in which the artist dissects the subtext of political messaging and Soviet-era film to create poetic expressions and gestures. Using primarily commercial advertising materials, the sculptures of polymer pigment lettering applied to acrylic cubes transform simple phrases into a visual babel of words distorted among the structure’s colorful layers. Placed on milk crates, the work challenges its own status as an artwork and the hierarchy of value in which it circulates.
Bulletin, 2020
Dye sublimation on polyester mesh Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, gift of the artistThe repetition of the word “now” four times suggests a perpetual present that is detached from the future. This implied time loop continues in the banner’s background, which repetitively depicts a murky sky from the Soviet-commissioned film Earth (1930) by Ukrainian director and screenwriter Alexander Dovzhenko, whose original version was recut by Stalin’s editors. By appropriating historic media that involves framing otherness, Bauer makes vulnerable the “us versus them” construct that perpetually marginalizes heterogeneous ways of life.
Double Negative, 2017
Laser-cut felted recycled plastic, aluminum Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, gift of the artistThe phrase in this artwork references the philosophical question: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” The thought experiment raises questions about the role of human perception and observation in verifying reality, as well as contemplating the agency of the imperceptible. The artist takes this rumination further by titling the work after the linguistic nonstandard construction of two grammatical negations that cancel each other out to become an emphasized positive, gesturing to the importance of what is omitted and the inherent conflict between a thing and its naming.
The Time Is Now, 2018 and To Be Continued, 2019
Synthetic polymer pigment, mirrored plexiglass, cast acrylicThe short phrases in Bauer’s mirrored works reference timeless calls to action with opposing directives—now versus later—possibly meant for the viewer whose reflection becomes part of the composition. The expressions, each repeated three times in the respective works, seem to represent epochal bookends to revolutionary moments put on hold by unknown forces, thus delaying progress.
Unknown What Is Known, 2020
Synthetic polymer pigment, cast acrylic Collection of John DonaldsonBauer’s sculpture is a reinterpretation of the 19th century zoetrope—a cylindrical object with slits on its surface that spins to make an interior image look like it is moving. In the artist’s version, the vinyl text on plexiglass flattens and expands as the body moves around the object, optically collapsing the spatial hierarchy of language. The artwork’s title refers to the varying degrees of perceptible truth and suggests a denial of what is known.
Die Mad, 2019
Ghanaian/Chinese wax fabric, acrylic paint, colored pencil, and glitter on canvas Courtesy of the artistOn her highly detailed tapestries, Bey situates influencers, artists, and friends on Earth as citizens of Atlantica—an alternate world where the Black experience is free from Earth’s racism, oppressive hierarchies, and colonial traumas. In Die Mad, Bey creates a scene filled with color, sparkle, and pattern to celebrate Black prosperity and tell haters to take their feelings to the grave.
Welcome to Atlantica (Hotel Room Planet Guide), 2019
Book: image transfers, graphite, watercolor, glitter, LaserJet prints, colored pencils, thread, and glue on paper Courtesy of the artist and Gavlak Gallery, Los AngelesThese intricately pasted, painted, glittered, and stitched pages make up a guidebook for tourists visiting Atlantica—Bey’s expansive mythological universe where James Baldwin is president, glitter is currency, and Black people prosper. The artist’s alternate reality, and the artwork produced, is a social critique of American culture, feminism, and race within white supremacist systems, rejecting the self-proclaimed exceptionalism of these orders to offer a new dimension of expansive principles. For the artist, Atlantica is more than an exercise in imaginative realism, it is a manifestation of an origin story and a therapeutic strategy to exist as a queer Black femme on Earth.
Yes, And I Just Love Your Hair Too, 2019
Watercolor on canvas, thread, faux black fur Courtesy of the artist and Gavlak Gallery, Los AngelesIn artwork from the Atlantica series, Bey introduces viewers to a parallel universe that celebrates Womanist thought, black visionaries, and queer adventures in design. Yes, And I Just Love Your Hair Too is an advertisement found on the planet Atlantica that references the complex history of Black hair in western culture and redefines Blackness through an audacious and joyous critique of existence on Earth. Using elements of graphic design, sewing, and writing, the artist forms an aesthetic that is intentionally revisionist, destroying harmful power dynamics and offering radical interpretations through an alternate reality.
Your Progress, 2019
Ghanaian/Chinese wax fabric, acrylic paint, colored pencil, and glitter on canvas Courtesy of the artistYour Progress references the 1989 documentary James Baldwin: The Price of a Ticket, where, in response to a question about Black people’s progress in the United States, Baldwin asked: What is it you want me to reconcile myself to? I was born here almost 60 years ago. I’m not going to live another 60 years. You always told me it takes time. … How much time do you want for your progress? In Atlantica—Bey’s alternate universe—James Baldwin is president, offering a timeline that honors the profound insight of the 20th century writer and activist.
Abolish ICE, 2018
Cardboard, LED lights Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los AngelesCreated to protect America from cross-border crime and illegal immigration, the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has found itself at the center of controversy over the infringement of human rights. Bowers’s work calls for the abolishment of ICE, bearing in mind laws, such as Arizona’s SB1070, that have skewed the balance of power between the public and law enforcement by authorizing racial profiling in the name of national defense.
Disrupting and Resisting, J20 & J21, 2018
Single channel HD video (color, sound); 89 minutes, 23 seconds, Edition of 5 + 2 AP Courtesy of the artist and Capitain Petzel Gallery, BerlinThis documentary-style film shows protests in Washington, D.C., surrounding the inauguration of Donald J. Trump. On January 20, 2017, there were numerous nonviolent demonstrations, including #DisruptJ20 that blocked entry checkpoints to the presidential ceremonies, resulting in a citywide paralysis. The next day, January 21, 2017, the national women-led organization Women’s March held its inaugural demonstration, the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, directed at the new president’s misogynistic statements and positions. Through the documentation of these historic protests, Bowers blends art and activism in a pursuit to delegitimize patriarchy and white nationalism in the United States.
Fighting Women, Linda, Mae Geri Kekomi (Thrust Front Kick), 2021
Acrylic and pigment ink on cardboard Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los AngelesBowers’s original drawings on collaged cardboard depict a form of activism expressed not in words but through body movement. The subjects of the drawings are sourced from the artist’s photographs of women martial artists in Los Angeles and complicate empowered femme identity with impressions of vulnerability, physical agility, fragility, and strength. Using large, collaged cardboard as a canvas—a process Bowers has been evolving since her time at Occupy Wall Street—renders these works as monumental protest signs that defy the patriarchal systems that continue to accommodate and overlook violence toward women.
Fighting Women, Sunny, Jab, 2021
Acrylic and pigment ink on cardboard Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los AngelesBowers’s original drawings on collaged cardboard depict a form of activism expressed not in words but through body movement. The subjects of the drawings are sourced from the artist’s photographs of women martial artists in Los Angeles and complicate empowered femme identity with impressions of vulnerability, physical agility, fragility, and strength. Using large, collaged cardboard as a canvas—a process Bowers has been evolving since her time at Occupy Wall Street—renders these works as monumental protest signs that defy the patriarchal systems that continue to accommodate and overlook violence toward women.
factograph series, 2018
Archival inkjet on folded Japanese kōzo paper Courtesy of the artistFrom Right to Left: common knowledge (factograph), 2018; pursuer pursued pursuit (factograph), 2018; Civilian (factograph), 2018. Chang’s factograph series reconfigures images and texts cut out of newspapers to reveal how pairing the two can alter meaning and shape the balance of power. The series takes its name from the Soviet-era propagandist practice of factography: a form of semi-fictional storytelling that uses real people, places, and events. This approach was invented in the Soviet Union to control public opinion by circumventing the state’s own prohibition of fiction for fiction’s sake. Occupying the space between institutional critique and poetic reflection, Chang’s reconfigurations suggest that fiction finds its way into the news despite all efforts to control it.
factograph series, 2017-18
Lithography on newsprint Courtesy of the artistThis installation of newsprints scattered in the gallery visualizes the noise of information (and misinformation) in the media. On each newsprint is a reproduction from Chang’s factograph series of collaged images and texts sourced from various newspapers. Within these configurations, the artist questions how meaning is constructed and suggests that truth may be found through poetic reflection. On Gallery Floor: Adrift by Shifts (factograph), 2017; No Threat (factograph), 2017; Spectator (factograph), 2017; To Objectivity (factograph), 2018; en verso (factograph), 2018; Open and Shut (factograph), 2018; Make Them Pay (factograph), 2019.
Fundament I, 2021
Stereograph card and foundation fragment Courtesy of the artistThe mid- to late 19th century photographs in Dean’s Fundament series show freedmen and freedwomen establishing independence, despite unjust conditions, and the open-air pavilion in St. Augustine, Florida, where enslaved people were publicly sold prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The stereoscopic pictures, double images from slightly different angles, are upheld by foundation fragments taken from the city’s 1879 Confederate monument, which was removed in 2020 along with many others across the United States. Dean’s work suggests that government orders, such as the Emancipation Proclamation and monument removals, are often symbolic gestures that fall short of affecting real change and do not fully address this country’s problematic foundation.
Fundament III, 2021
Stereograph card and foundation fragment Courtesy of the artistThe mid- to late 19th century photographs in Dean’s Fundament series show freedmen and freedwomen establishing independence, despite unjust conditions, and the open-air pavilion in St. Augustine, Florida, where enslaved people were publicly sold prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The stereoscopic pictures, double images from slightly different angles, are upheld by foundation fragments taken from the city’s 1879 Confederate monument, which was removed in 2020 along with many others across the United States. Dean’s work suggests that government orders, such as the Emancipation Proclamation and monument removals, are often symbolic gestures that fall short of affecting real change and do not fully address this country’s problematic foundation.
Fundament V, 2021
Stereograph card and foundation fragment Courtesy of the artistThe mid- to late 19th century photographs in Dean’s Fundament series show freedmen and freedwomen establishing independence, despite unjust conditions, and the open-air pavilion in St. Augustine, Florida, where enslaved people were publicly sold prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The stereoscopic pictures, double images from slightly different angles, are upheld by foundation fragments taken from the city’s 1879 Confederate monument, which was removed in 2020 along with many others across the United States. Dean’s work suggests that government orders, such as the Emancipation Proclamation and monument removals, are often symbolic gestures that fall short of affecting real change and do not fully address this country’s problematic foundation.
This Innocent Country Part I, 2021
Three-channel video (color, sound); 1 minute, 58 seconds Courtesy of the artistDean’s three-channel video shows various representations of white supremacy in St. Augustine, Florida, at different points in time: a 1960s tourism film promoting suburbia, a 1964 film of an anti-civil rights gathering with the Ku Klux Klan, and a 2020 video of a far-right rally with neo-Confederates, Proud Boys, and Oath Keepers. This video compilation exposes the false pretense of innocence in a country where hatred and racism of the past continues in the present, blurring the notion of linear progress and provoking social awareness.
Three White Flags, 2023
Unwoven American flags, wax encaustic, needles Courtesy of the artistFor more than 20 years, Dean has been deconstructing and rebuilding American flags as part of his artistic practice in order to emphasize the fragility of democracy and reconsider patriotic values. His new work, Three White Flags, references two Jasper Johns paintings— White Flag (1955) and Three Flags (1958)—to visualize the dwindling, yet potent, white American population and the practice of whitewashing U.S. history that aims to make our diverse country more white-friendly. For this work, each unwoven string was hand dipped in encaustic wax and tied to needles of different lengths, creating three layers of flags. During this laborious process, each layer becomes progressively smaller and whiter, leaving a ghostly hint of what lies beneath.
SAY MY NAME, 2018
Glass beads, tin jingles, copper, steel San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Peggy GuggenheimGibson’s artwork visually expresses a harmonious dialogue between Indigenous and modernist styles and offers insightful phrases from songs, poems, and his own writing. In SAY MY NAME, Gibson lists alternating pronouns, signaling the fluidity and power of self-determined identity and collectivity. The artist’s use of glass beads, tin jingles, and other metals in this weaving shows how Indigenous mediums contribute to expansive communication through sound and movement.
happening with Russia, 2020
40 etched copper panels, Text: U.S. government document Courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magershappening with Russia is composed of copper panels featuring select pages from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Russian government’s possible interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The pages include interviews with advisers to and members of the president’s administration in 2017 that were mostly redacted prior to public access. The random oxidation of the soft metal panels continues to conceal what details remain, referencing the manipulation and distortion of public information over time.
I Will Sleep Tonight, 2017-ongoing
Label tape, push pins Courtesy of the artistDuring the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Jagmin began the meditative process of typing out affirmations on label tape to calm his anxieties, even if they contradicted his real feelings. The resulting installation provides an equally contemplative endeavor through looking and reading. Despite the positive phrases, the work relays the tension of the time through its excessive repetition and looming presence.
Memorial No. 2, 2023
Gold leaf on paper Courtesy of the artistJagmin’s work memorializes his family nickname “Chrissy” and juxtaposes it alongside an inverted rendering of a slur he heard for the first time as a young boy, when being teased after his mother used his beloved nickname at school. Drawing the words in gold, the artist created this work to proclaim both as self-identifying labels on his own terms, as well as restore value to his childhood nickname that he associates with deep familial love.
Preamble, 2022
Colored pencil on paper Courtesy of the artistIn this drawing, Jagmin rewrites the first sentence of the U.S. Constitution using Polari—a secret language mainly used by gay men and lesbians in London in the early to mid-20th century when homosexuality was illegal. The language uses vocabulary from a variety of subcultures, including Cant (used by criminals in the 16th to 18th centuries) and Parlyaree (originated in the 16th century by Mediterranean sailors), and words derived from British rhyming slang, Italian, Romani, and Yiddish. Jagmin’s Preamble offers the beginnings of an alternative constitution for individuals who have long been relegated to clandestine lives and asks us to consider for whom the original proclamation was written. A GLOSS: We the Yanks [Americans], in Order to charper [seek] a mostest absolutely fantabulosa Lattie [fabulous home], establish Bonaness [goodness; righteousness], insure Peace at Lattie [home], hook up anti-barney [antiwar; antiviolence], promote the national Handbag [bank], and jockstrap [protect] the Bona Lavs [good words] of Liberty to us-selves and our Dinarly [money], do ordain and naildown [secure] this Scceeving [writing] for the homies [men] and palones [women; feminine men] under Una Lattie [one-nation].
Wellness (2021), Nothing Is Up But The Rent (2021), Oh Things Ain’t What They Used To Be (2021), Coretta (2019), That Which We Do Not See (MLK), 2019
Neon on plexiglass Courtesy of the artist and Charlie James Gallery, Los AngelesMimicking colorful signage found in the front windows of bodegas and mom-and-pop shops, Martinez’s neon works illuminate poetic expressions that draw awareness to the struggles of our time. Authored by the artist or borrowed from revolutionary thinkers (such as 1960s civil rights activists Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr.), the phrases resist the marginalization of communities that are continually oppressed through acts of police brutality, neighborhood redlining, gentrification, and economic discrimination, to name a few.
Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind, 2018-20
28 archival pigment print of digital scan of microfilm from original issues of Time Magazine Courtesy of the artist and Massimo Ligreggi Gallery, ItalyMoran’s series presents 28 prints of select advertisements from Time magazine’s first year of publication. While researching the origins of fact-checking in Time’s corporate archives, the artist discovered an array of self-advertisements that proclaimed Time as the source for reliable facts, often using mythologic and heroic language to persuade its readers. The prints show visual marks of time and technology that distort the 100-year-old news and draw attention to the transformation of media from offset printing to digitization, as well as its antiquated practices and viewpoints.
The three books which formed TIME’s original library—the Bible, Xenophon’s Anabasis, and the Iliad—are still in TIME’s offices, still thumbed (Briton Hadden and Henry Luce), 2019
Porcelain bookends, vintage books Collection of Alpegiani TorinoTime magazine originated the practice of journalistic fact-checking at its founding in 1923 by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce. The all-female fact-checking department (until 1973) had only three books available in the magazine’s library—the Bible, Xenophon’s Anabasis, and Homer’s Iliad —requiring them to frequent the New York Public Library for all other resources. The mystifying selection of books based on religious doctrine, historical narrative, and Greek mythology seems contradictory to journalistic reporting and fact-checking, leaving doubt as to whether the cofounders truly cared about the magazine’s accuracy.
Proof-Reading #1-#6, 2017-18
Handsewn cotton handkerchief with embroidery Works #1 and #3, Collection of Cattryn Somers and Michael Cafiso; remaining courtesy of the artist and Lisa Sette Gallery.Morton created the first work in this series to express her frustration with the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. For subsequent works in the series, the artist used blue thread to hand-embroider short phrases from controversial statements made by the now former president during his term in office and edited them with red thread to create dissenting responses to the originals. Noting the past leader’s tendency to inflate and twist words, the artist takes the liberty to do the same. While Morton’s edits do not transform the phrases into factual statements, they represent the contrasting political opinions that currently disunite our nation.
Trespasses, 2020
Vintage embroidery sampler and new embroidery on panel Courtesy of the artistMorton recontextualized her family’s heirloom textiles by overlaying new phrases onto their white-centric messaging. In Trespasses, the artist stitched an African proverb that metaphorically references how dominant groups control power through historical narrative over the top of the Lord’s Prayer, originally sewn by the artist and her mother during a childhood embroidery lesson.
US | THEM, 2020
Vintage tablecloth, acrylic paint, and embroidery on panel Collection of Cattryn Somers and Michael CafisoMorton recontextualized her family’s heirloom textiles by overlaying new phrases onto their white-centric messaging. In US / THEM, Morton refashions a decorative tablecloth used in her childhood home to call out the normalization of Mexican stereotyping and acknowledge her family’s own ignorance in perpetuating this form of othering.
Poetic Research for Exhibition Catalog, 2022
Smyth-sewn, Swiss-bound hardcover book: mirror-metalized 80-lb. paper, Flo dull text 100-lb. paper, Classic Crest seal white 80-lb. paper, UV ink Commissioned by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary ArtPolymode’s expansive design practice begins with a process they call poetic research, where speculative design and research blend with elements of emotional sensitivity, mysticism, humor, and queerness. The artists created this specially designed wallpaper and process-based video to visually explain their unorthodox process. The bicoastal, LGBTQ+, and minority-owned studio is led by partners Silas Munro and Brian Johnson. Studio members include Michelle Lamb, Randa Hadi, and Audrey Davies. Video and animation by Edgar Casarian.
Possibilities for Representation, 2020
watercolor and gouache on paper on panel Courtesy of the artistPowhida’s large-scale installation presents a visual timeline of America’s political history, from settler-colonial days through the present and into possible futures. Individual paintings portraying significant figures (or various film actors playing those roles) and major events are strategically hung within a spectrum of political extremes. With each presentation, the artist adapts the work to unpack recent political events, such as the 2022 midterm elections, and offer an array of possible outcomes for our consideration. Key: timeline (black) right wing extremism (dotted black) conservative line (red) centrist line (purple) progressive line (blue) left wing extremism (dotted red) billionaire line (green)
Your Mouth Is Wicked, 2016-ongoing
platform, four-channel audio Courtesy of the artistRasheed’s cross-disciplinary practice as an artist, writer, and educator investigates the politics of belief formation and knowledge interchange to find new ways of communicating across physical, spiritual, temporal, and metaphysical planes. In Your Mouth Is Wicked, viewers experience an audio montage of street proselytization, phone prophet messages, and conversations about religious beliefs from a soapbox-like platform. The title comes from a phrase by a soapbox orator who stopped mid-sermon to tell a woman that her “mouth is wicked.” The woman responded, “Your mind is wicked!” Whether the two shared similar beliefs or not became insignificant in this public altercation between strangers.
Bad Hombre Pistols, 2022
Slip-cast stoneware, glaze, gold luster, ceramic decals Courtesy of the artistRodriguez created this series of ceramic pistols in response to former president Trump’s outlandish categorization of Mexican immigrants as rapists, criminals, and “bad hombres.” The sculptural forms play into the stereotypical criminalization of immigrants, while their decoration of floral patterning and gold detailing points out that generalizations are misleading.
Brown Boys for 45, 2019
Leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Rodriguez visited a Mexican American immigrant community in southeast Houston and saw men proudly wearing MAGA hats. This situation was perplexing and ironic considering Trump’s anti-immigration policies and disparaging comments in relation to Mexico and Mexicans especially. The artist theorizes that those who immigrate tend to—consciously or unconsciously—disassociate from the struggles of those yet to come by assimilating the populist viewpoints of their new home. For this work, the artist made ceramic copies of pre-Columbian artifacts found in a shaft tomb in Mexico that looked like heads wearing hats, giving each a single word from an all-too-familiar phrase.
Educate, Engage, Resist, 2019
Slip-cast stoneware, glaze, spray enamel, gold luster Courtesy of the artistRodriguez’s Educate, Engage, Resist was inspired by Paulo Friere’s book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which uses those three words to describe ways of fighting oppression. Modeled from a pre-Columbian mother figure and tagged in a graffiti-like font, the artist incorporates his Indigenous and Mestizo ancestral forms with contemporary Latinx graphics to acknowledge the evolution of past cultural invasions into current oppressive ideologies and actions.
Hello My Name Is (Boombox), 2018
Slip-cast stoneware, glaze, ceramic decals Courtesy of the artistOn the face of this ceramic boombox is a self-portrait of the artist surrounded by slurs for Mexican Americans written in graffiti-like font. The common peel and stick name tag over the artist’s mouth represents the suppression of voicing his objection to being labeled by derogatory names that heighten stereotypes in dominant culture.
I Am Not X, 2021
Slip-cast terra-cotta, ceramic decals, underglaze transfers, gold luster, glaze State of Utah Alice Merril Home Art Collection, Utah Division of Arts & MuseumsRodriguez’s sculpture is a replica of a colossal head from the Olmec culture—the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization, dating back to 1400 BCE, that inhabited the eastern coast of Mexico. The words written on the face challenge the indiscriminate labeling of ethnic groups based on similarities in culture. The artist uses X as a placeholder for the newest politically correct title that continually neglects to acknowledge a group’s diverse range of ancestorial heritage.
Concerned but Powerless #1-#22, 2016-2018
Mixed media, charcoal, and colored pencil on cold-press illustration board Courtesy of the artistSaleem created this semi-satirical series between 2016 and 2018 as a way of processing his anxieties as a South Asian Muslim living in America. Covering topics such as the election, parenthood, naturalization, and otherness, the sardonic commentary grows progressively desperate as anti-ethnic sentiments and tensions intensified. Accompanying the writings are collages with snippets of mid-19th century illustrations and photographs, Urdu (national language of Pakistan) words, and hand-drawn symbols that together tell a different story of the American dream.
Concerned but Powerless: Rough Translation, 2023
Digital video Courtesy of the artistUsed as a key for translating Urdu words found in the graphics of Saleem’s Concerned but Powerless series, this video shares an intimate conversation between the artist and his daughter as he teaches her Urdu and explains their English translations.
The Native Guide Project, 2019-ongoing
Billboard vinyl Courtesy of the artistTsouhlarakis utilizes sculpture, installation, video, and performance in her artistic practice to expand definitions of Indigenous aesthetic and conceptual production. "The Native Guide Project" is a series of positive reinforcement phrases written by the artist in black block lettering that correct intentional and unintentional microaggressions toward Indigenous people and their culture. Aiming for widespread circulation, Tsouhlarakis presents versions of the project through large public installations and the semi-anonymous Instagram handle @thatnativeartist. This highly visible and evolving project offers viewers new perspectives on how to best respect and acknowledge the complexity of Indigeneity in America.
The Native Guide Project, 2019–ongoing
Billboard vinyl Courtesy of the artistTsouhlarakis utilizes sculpture, installation, video, and performance in her artistic practice to expand definitions of Indigenous aesthetic and conceptual production. "The Native Guide Project" is a series of positive reinforcement phrases written by the artist in black block lettering that correct intentional and unintentional microaggressions toward Indigenous people and their culture. Aiming for widespread circulation, Tsouhlarakis presents versions of the project through large public installations and the semi-anonymous Instagram handle @thatnativeartist. This highly visible and evolving project offers viewers new perspectives on how to best respect and acknowledge the complexity of Indigeneity in America.
Exhibition Catalog
The conceptually designed catalog by Polymode for Language in Times of Miscommunication acts as a twofold object, publication and artwork, that clearly relays essay and artwork while simultaneously conveying notions of intentional and unintentional miscommunication. Oscillating between moments of clarity and distortion, clean spreads of text and image are reused as a background for additional layers of images. With each progression, the background images fade and the text pixelates, simulating a breakdown of information over time.
Pre-order available through [email protected] beginning March 4th.
Press
Related Press
SMoCA curator’s project looks at miscommunication, interview with curator Lauren O’Connell, Scottsdale Progress, March 18, 2023
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Adds New Exhibit, interview with curator Lauren O’Connell, Arizona Horizon (Arizona PBS), March 2, 2023
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art presents ‘Language in Times of Miscommunication’, e-flux announcements
SMoCA Contemplates ‘Language in Times of Miscommunication’ with New Exhibition (Scottsdale Arts news release)
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