Taryn Simon on her most ambitious exhibition yet: ‘It’s built almost like a novel’
The multidisciplinary artist delves into pockets of history, including within her family, for the largest ever debut of new work staged at the GuggenheimTaryn Simon is seated in a conference...
By Quinn Moreland · The Guardian Culture
The multidisciplinary artist delves into pockets of history, including within her family, for the largest ever debut of new work staged at the Guggenheim Taryn Simon is seated in a conference room at the Guggenheim, looking dazed. Her new show, Father Country I Do Love You, opens in under three weeks. It’s a big deal, the first monographic exhibition by a photography-based artist in the iconic spiral rotunda, and the largest debut of new work ever staged at the museum. There’s still a lot of work to be done. Downstairs, the lobby is being transformed into the Bangkok living room of Jim Thompson, a silk businessman-slash-spy who disappeared in 1967. Simon’s father, a US government worker, was living in Thailand at the time and figured that the Chinese got him, if not a tiger. When Simon was nine, the father and daughter recreated Thompson’s famous wood-panelled den back in Long Island. “And then I built it here with fake teak,” she says, voice wilting. “It’s driving me nuts. I’ve spent so much time trying to make non-teak look like teak.” Continue reading...