Current
Los Angeles-based contemporary artist Sichong Xie’s guardhouse installation, Memory Structure, Scaffold Series, features objects and arrangements emblematic of memory and temporality: bamboo scaffolding, embroidery on industrial mesh, and a set of laser-engraved drawings that will fade from continual exposure to light, through which the artist reimagines architectural drawings created by her grandfather in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
What is history? What are historical facts? How do we experience our own past and the history of the world? In times of culture wars about monuments and history education, this exhibition asks questions about the character of historical knowledge and the stories we tell about the past. Facts do matter, while the ways we interpret them are often subjective and open to debate or the cause of social discord.
Museums are educational institutions that have pertinent stories to share, yet most visitors are not aware of the complex discussions behind an exhibition concept, or even a single object label. Questionable History focuses on illuminating these often invisible question marks.
Russia has had a long, tumultuous history with its Jewish citizens. Short periods of prosperity and acceptance were alternated with centuries of persecution and exclusion. During the Cold War, Soviet Jews experienced discrimination and often were disciplined when they applied for emigration to Israel, Europe, or the United States. Applications came at a great cost, resulting in the loss of employment, educational opportunities, and isolation from family and friends. The Soviet Jewish experience is at the core of the work in this exhibition by Bill Aron and Yevgeniy Fiks.
Since 1998, Roemers has conducted "photographic archeological research" on the physical remains of the Cold War. Visually, he seeks out stillness in the remains of military infrastructure that is slowly and steadily being overtaken by nature. Traveling through former "enemy territory," Roemers explores these deserted military installations through his medium-format camera, finding rusting tanks and destroyed monuments. Descending into underground bunkers, he captures a still present sense of paranoia and hyper-alertness. On both sides of the Iron Curtain he finds enormous amounts of nuclear shelters, air force bases, shooting ranges, rocket launch pads, border fences, and radar stations, all built with a shared sense of fear.