Taryn Simon’s Evidence as Spectacle
A Hyperallergic roundup highlights criticism and news items centered on art, celebrity, and institutional politics, including a review of Sleth’s play “The Wreck of the Unbelievable” at the Brick Theater. The play imagines Damien Hirst’s death and a fictional secret gay lover named Shape, with editor-at-large Hrag Vartanian describing it as a parodic but pointed look at fame, infatuation, and the costs of artistic ambition. The roundup also notes Aruna D’Souza’s review of Taryn Simon’s exhibition at the Guggenheim, which follows the real life of an unnamed federal agent and leaves the critic with “a sense of helplessness,” and mentions Noah Fischer’s discussion of Dana Mashoian Walrath’s graphic novel “The Book of Genocides.” It further reports that Congress voted to hold billionaire and MoMA board member Leon Black in contempt in its Epstein investigation, and that a new book describes Black’s plans for a foundation museum to display an art collection estimated at $5 billion in an iconic Manhattan property.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Sound Wars, Body Politics, and Museum Crackdowns