A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions
“A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions reflects on the ways that artists have responded to the evolving conditions of the 21st century. Composed of work by 40 artists, the exhibition broadly considers the fluidity of ideas and how artworks embody time. The installation, which highlights recent acquisitions and works on view to the public for the first time, calls attention to the varied forms and approaches taken by different artists and the connections between the personal, the intimate and the individual; constructions of identity, history and culture; the instability of materials; and strategies to rediscover or recover the past.
The title phrase is taken from art historian George Kubler’s seminal book The Shape of Time (1962), in which the author proposes a history of “things”—including artworks—that traces connected ideas developed in sequence, sometimes over centuries and with intervening deviations and lapses. Through ideas, artworks are affected by their historical context and, in turn, affect it.” — SFMOMA
Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Büsi (Kitty), 2001 (still); single-channel video projection, color, with sound, 6:30 min.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Peter Fischli and David Weiss
Ellen Gronemeyer, Exclamation-marc, 2015; oil on canvas; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Ellen Gronemeyer
Mark Manders, Big Female Head, 2011; wood, painted epoxy, and iron; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase, by exchange, through an anonymous gift; © Mark Manders
Paulina Olowska, A Portrait of the Artist—Indoors, 2012; oil paint, ink, and transparency on linen; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Paulina Olowska; photo Don Ross
Catherine Opie, Kate (Bike), 2007; chromogenic print; promised gift of the Pilara Foundation Collection to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Catherine Opie
Walid Raad, Cotton Under My Feet I feel a great desire meet the masses once again, 2007/11; inkjet on paper; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Walid Raad; photo: Don Ross
Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda, 2008–10; wood, mineral compound, metal, and grass; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase, by exchange, through a fractional gift of Shirley Ross Davis; © Doris Salcedo
Carrie Mae Weems, Hush of Our Silence from In The Year Three: Exit Art Portfolio 2003, 2003; chromogenic print; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of Charles Kremer; © Carrie Mae Weems
A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions was curated by Jenny Gheith, assistant curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA.
Runa Islam: Verso
“This solo presentation of the Bangladesh-born British artist Runa Islam features the U.S. premiere of Cabinet of Prototypes (2009–10), a 16mm film installation from SFMOMA’s collection that serves as the exhibition’s point of departure for exploring the threshold between film and sculpture. Originally commissioned for the Kivik Art Centre in Österlen, Sweden, as a projected film for an architect’s pavilion set in the sculpture park’s grounds, the work was later reconfigured into a cinematic sculpture by enclosing both the projector and screen within a glass vitrine.
At SFMOMA, Cabinet of Prototypes is brought for the first time into conversation with a second film, Magical Consciousness (2010), both of which stemmed from Islam’s Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship and her time with the collections at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. A third gallery of new and recent works includes several objects incorporating Islam’s ongoing process of reclaiming the silver from exposed celluloid. Anatomical Studies (2014) casts select items from the artist’s studio in the ‘latent’ silver, including the type of silver pencils employed in her drawing series, …laws of night and honey (2016).” — SFMOMA
Runa Islam, Cabinet of Prototypes, 2009–2010; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase, by exchange, through a fractional gift of Shirley Ross Davis and the Accessions Committee Fund; © Runa Islam; photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)
Runa Islam, Cabinet of Prototypes (still), 2009–2010; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase, by exchange, through a fractional gift of Shirley Ross Davis and the Accessions Committee Fund; © Runa Islam; photo: courtesy White Cube
Runa Islam, Magical Consciousness (still); 2010; courtesy the artist and White Cube; © Runa Islam; photo: courtesy White Cube
Runa Islam, Anatomical Study (Instruments), 2013–2014; courtesy the artist and White Cube; © Runa Islam; photo: George Darrell, courtesy White Cube
Runa Islam: Verso was curated by Tanya Zimbardo, assistant curator of media arts at SFMOMA.
All images courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.