“Taylor Davis Selects: Invisible Ground of Sympathy”
Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston
January 31, 2023–January 7, 2024
by Theodora Bocanegra Lang
What the deaf see is what seers hear.
A place of emptiness makes sense
to those of us who stand in the door.
– Fanny Howe, At Seaport: 2023 (2023)
The title of Invisible Ground of Sympathy, now open at the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, is taken from Taoism scholar Chang Chung-yuan’s (1907–1988) book Creativity and Taoism (1963), which describes the blending of the discrete subject and object through interactions. As Chang writes, “The dissolution of self and the interfusion among all individuals, which takes place upon entry into this realm of nonbeing, constitute the metaphysical structure of sympathy.” The single room of the exhibition acts as this realm of nonbeing, presenting a wide range of works with both obvious and opaque affinities (fig. 1).
Invisible Ground is curated by artist Taylor Davis (b. 1959), who selected works primarily from the museum’s permanent collection. Though Davis did not include her own sculpture, she placed five narrow and vertical copper-colored mirrors around the perimeter of the gallery. The mirrors reflect passersby onto the walls as they walk around the room, collapsing the spaces between works and visitors. This mingling is echoed in many of the works on view, such as Walking Camera (Jimmy the Camera/Gift to Jimmy from Laurie) (1987) by Laurie Simmons, a photograph of a camera with legs. By anthropomorphizing the art-making apparatus, Simmons locates artists, viewers, mediums, and objects in a nebulous conflation.
Interrogating these relationships further, Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Still #48 (1979) shows the back of a young woman with a suitcase, who is looking out from the side of a road. While Sherman (b. 1954) famously uses visual cues to trigger a cinematic narrative, here seemingly of an ingénue in trouble, the scene itself could be of a number of diverse situations. Interpretation of the work relies on something already present in the mind of the viewer to project meaning. This yields a communication that fuses artist, viewer, and effect, blurring boundaries between collective and individual reception.
Extending to considerations of physical reception, Wedges (2019) by Isabel Mallet (b. 1989) is a hammered chain of nine coins made from salvaged bolts. Works from this series can be used however the possessor decides: kept on a shelf, carried in a pocket, stashed under a couch cushion, or hung on a wall. The choice to install this work on a museum wall offers a specific viewing experience. Like Davis’s mirrors, they bring the conditions of observation and the room into the work.
The exhibition probes the room as seen by the visitor’s vantage point, as articulated by poet Fanny Howe in a text commissioned for the exhibition (excerpted above). By centering viewpoint and personal experience, Howe emphasizes the individuality of looking. The inclusion of Howe’s poem in the show also muddles categorizations of visual art: it is installed like an artwork on a low pedestal with a corresponding wall label and printed copies are available for visitors to take home.
Invisible Ground presents the viewer with an array of disparate works, each an opportunity for a different kind of communication. The gallery acts as a site of building bridges, highlighting connections and differences between subject and object and between viewer and art. Davis’s decision not to include her own sculptural work itself turns a mirror on all relationships present.
____________________
Theodora Bocanegra Lang is an MA candidate in Modern and Contemporary Art History at Columbia University. She received her BA from Oberlin College in Art History. She was most recently curatorial assistant at Dia Art Foundation, where she worked on exhibitions with Jo Baer, Joan Jonas, and Maren Hassinger.