Hannah Black

"This book addresses how artifacts and objects of contemporary art create meaning and mythology in equal measure. What challenges does exhibiting a work pose to the inherent muteness of objects? How do artists choose to speak on behalf of inanimate artifacts and byproducts of material culture and the natural world? This volume coincides with an exhibition that examines these questions and is organized around the idea that objects possess narrative histories that the conventions of display can only, at best, approximate. In recent years, the continued emphasis on an art of ideas--inherited from the legacies of Conceptual and post-Conceptual art--has sought to broaden the function of everyday objects. Artists have, as a result, developed textual and non-textual approaches that reveal a faith in objects to communicate as well as skepticism of the promises of unmediated expression. The book is illustrated with works by Darren Bader, Kasper Bosmans, Carol Bove, Andrea Buttner, Jason Dodge, Haris Epaminonda, Iman Issa, Hassan Khan, Antonio Vega Macotela, Jill Magid, Dave McKenzie, Christodoulos Panayiotou, and others"--

This volume is published for a new site-specific installation that incorporates several films by Italian artist Adelita Husni Bey (born 1985), including the premiere of a major new work. 'Chiron' continues Husni Bey's explorations of the complexity of collectivity and the human and social consequences of imperialism. The introductory text to the catalog, "On exercise and outcome," by New Museum Associate Curator Helga Christoffersen, features a survey of Husni Bey's work from the past decade. Two new texts and an interview were written specifically for this catalog: "Who determines if something is habitable" by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, "Referred pain: On the work of Adelita Husni Bey" by Johanna Burton, and "There is water in among the Stones: A Conversation between Adelita Husni Bey and Hannah Black."