15 Mouths
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
Information Request
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
mounted on Hahnemühle Copperplate with letterpress printed text, series of fifteen
Image size: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches each (3.8 x 8.3 cm each)
Plate size: 1 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches each (4.4 x 8.6 cm each)
Paper size: 10 x 8 inches each (25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Edition of 40, 10 AP
Signed and numbered on colophon in graphite
(Inventory #31752)
“15 Mouths” consists of 15 photographs, each with a short text below it, all installed on a wall, along with an audio recording of an ensemble humming (not singing the lyrics) the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune “It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)”. Simpson chose the song specifically as she has vivid memories of John Coltrane’s version of the song being present throughout her childhood. The text below each image of lips could potentially refer to the internal monologues inside the head (not shown) to whom the lips belong. As Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times, “Much of Lorna Simpson’s photo-based work has been about African-American identity approached from an oblique and elusive perspective. Most of the figures in her pictures, usually black women, were filmed with their backs to the camera, as if to make them generic presences, adaptable to any narrative. The implication is that there are many narratives about race available, all of them conditional and subjective, created by the pressures of personal experience, interpretation and memory.”
Exhibited: November 11, 2017 – December 23, 2018
Selected Works
Untitled
Edition of 53, 10 AP
Left image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 21 9/16 inches (73.3 x 54.8 cm)
Right image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 16 inches (73.3 x 40.6 cm)
Overall image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 39 3/4 inches (73.3 x 101 cm)
Paper size: 35 1/2 x 45 1/2 inches (90.2 x 115.6 cm)
Frame size: 37 3/4 x 47 3/4 inches (95.9 x 121.3 cm)
Initialed and dated lower right, numbered lower left, recto
The accompanying text reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.”
(Inventory #31809)
The text at the bottom of the piece reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.”
In this work by Lorna Simpson, a photograph of a pair of a woman’s empty dress shoes standing on a specific but unidentifiable floor is juxtaposed with the pedals of an old upright piano situated in an unidentifiable and light-less space. Simpson’s addition of watercolor to the shoes could reference the human touch in the subject matter or the tradition of hand-tinting in nineteenth-century photographs. Both of these perhaps suggest a narrative engaging familial history and/or loss. Below the image, Simpson has printed an intentionally open-ended text that reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.” By leaving so much open-ended, Simpson reminds the viewer that even the seemingly familiar is more complicated than one initially assumes.
Simpson is well known for her work that addresses issues ranging from race and sexuality, to ideas of the body, to interpersonal communication and relationships. She has been inspired by various sources, including personal experience, the current political climate, and African-American culture and history.
Information Request
Edition of 53, 10 AP
Left image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 21 9/16 inches (73.3 x 54.8 cm)
Right image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 16 inches (73.3 x 40.6 cm)
Overall image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 39 3/4 inches (73.3 x 101 cm)
Paper size: 35 1/2 x 45 1/2 inches (90.2 x 115.6 cm)
Frame size: 37 3/4 x 47 3/4 inches (95.9 x 121.3 cm)
Initialed and dated lower right, numbered lower left, recto
The accompanying text reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.”
(Inventory #31809)
The text at the bottom of the piece reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.”
In this work by Lorna Simpson, a photograph of a pair of a woman’s empty dress shoes standing on a specific but unidentifiable floor is juxtaposed with the pedals of an old upright piano situated in an unidentifiable and light-less space. Simpson’s addition of watercolor to the shoes could reference the human touch in the subject matter or the tradition of hand-tinting in nineteenth-century photographs. Both of these perhaps suggest a narrative engaging familial history and/or loss. Below the image, Simpson has printed an intentionally open-ended text that reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.” By leaving so much open-ended, Simpson reminds the viewer that even the seemingly familiar is more complicated than one initially assumes.
Simpson is well known for her work that addresses issues ranging from race and sexuality, to ideas of the body, to interpersonal communication and relationships. She has been inspired by various sources, including personal experience, the current political climate, and African-American culture and history.
Edition of 53, 10 AP
Left image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 21 9/16 inches (73.3 x 54.8 cm)
Right image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 16 inches (73.3 x 40.6 cm)
Overall image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 39 3/4 inches (73.3 x 101 cm)
Paper size: 35 1/2 x 45 1/2 inches (90.2 x 115.6 cm)
Frame size: 37 3/4 x 47 3/4 inches (95.9 x 121.3 cm)
Initialed and dated lower right, numbered lower left, recto
The accompanying text reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.”
(Inventory #31809)
The text at the bottom of the piece reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.”
In this work by Lorna Simpson, a photograph of a pair of a woman’s empty dress shoes standing on a specific but unidentifiable floor is juxtaposed with the pedals of an old upright piano situated in an unidentifiable and light-less space. Simpson’s addition of watercolor to the shoes could reference the human touch in the subject matter or the tradition of hand-tinting in nineteenth-century photographs. Both of these perhaps suggest a narrative engaging familial history and/or loss. Below the image, Simpson has printed an intentionally open-ended text that reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.” By leaving so much open-ended, Simpson reminds the viewer that even the seemingly familiar is more complicated than one initially assumes.
Simpson is well known for her work that addresses issues ranging from race and sexuality, to ideas of the body, to interpersonal communication and relationships. She has been inspired by various sources, including personal experience, the current political climate, and African-American culture and history.
Edition of 53, 10 AP
Left image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 21 9/16 inches (73.3 x 54.8 cm)
Right image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 16 inches (73.3 x 40.6 cm)
Overall image/plate size: 28 7/8 x 39 3/4 inches (73.3 x 101 cm)
Paper size: 35 1/2 x 45 1/2 inches (90.2 x 115.6 cm)
Frame size: 37 3/4 x 47 3/4 inches (95.9 x 121.3 cm)
Initialed and dated lower right, numbered lower left, recto
The accompanying text reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.”
(Inventory #31809)
The text at the bottom of the piece reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.”
In this work by Lorna Simpson, a photograph of a pair of a woman’s empty dress shoes standing on a specific but unidentifiable floor is juxtaposed with the pedals of an old upright piano situated in an unidentifiable and light-less space. Simpson’s addition of watercolor to the shoes could reference the human touch in the subject matter or the tradition of hand-tinting in nineteenth-century photographs. Both of these perhaps suggest a narrative engaging familial history and/or loss. Below the image, Simpson has printed an intentionally open-ended text that reads, “What should fit here is an oblique story about absence, but I can’t remember the short version.” By leaving so much open-ended, Simpson reminds the viewer that even the seemingly familiar is more complicated than one initially assumes.
Simpson is well known for her work that addresses issues ranging from race and sexuality, to ideas of the body, to interpersonal communication and relationships. She has been inspired by various sources, including personal experience, the current political climate, and African-American culture and history.