2014 Whitney Biennial
wither on a vine of inane inscrutability,
tedious ephemera and derivative concepts. Still…go to the show! The good
pieces are really good, and the entire
experience makes one pause and take
stock, an estimable exercise in our nonstop, never-look-back world.
The curatorial trifecta is comprised of
Anthony Elms, a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and editor of White Walls; Stuart
Sheila Hicks, Pillar of Inquiry/Supple Column,
2013-14. Acrylic, linen, cotton, bamboo, and
silk, 204 × 48 × 48 in. Collection of the artist;
courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York.
106
PEACHY
Comer, the media and performance
curator at the Museum of Modern Art
(formerly at the Tate Modern); and
Michelle Grabner, an artist and a professor of painting at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago and Yale.
Mr. Elms show is on the second floor
and is the most academic—conceptually rich, albeit aesthetically challenged.
A signature piece in his show displays
an album revolving on a turntable, and
yet no sound is emitted. At first blush
one might think this is some sort of riff
on John Cage’s 4'33" but upon listening
more closely there is indeed some sort
of sound—swirling