I REMEMBER ANOTHER WAY...

This exhibition is meant to pervert Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s analysis of Laocoön and his sons (1st century) in The History of the Art of Antiquity published 1764. Not only does this exhibition bring Winckelmann’s concept of beauty into a contemporary context, but it also shines a light on the negative impacts of ideal beauty standards, and presents a potential future where such concepts are dismantled. While this exhibition is imagined in an industrial space, it can be adjusted to a white cube setting, and is comprised of four galleries. The first gallery sets the stage for the following galleries. At the forefront is the Wax Model of the Laocoön (17th-18th century) by an anonymous artist. Flanking the diminutive rendition of Laocoön is the performance piece by Xu Zhen titled, In Just a Blink of an Eye (2005-2019), an ode to the Hellenistic style of capturing a frozen scene of movement. Finally is Eva Woolridge’s photograph Blinding Pain (2019) which stands across from Model of the Laocoön. The two pieces are juxtaposed in size while Woolridge’s photograph presents a contemporary example of an artwork that meets Winckelmann’s standard of beauty; put simply, pain and anguish in the body with stoic facial features. The following gallery centers a second photograph by Woolridge titled Weight of Trauma (2019). Before arriving at this photograph, the viewer must first step on the installation titled Floor (1997-2000) by Do Ho Suh. Floor features miniature figurines of people holding up the platform which the viewer is on, adding to the weight the figurines carry. On each side of Woolridge’s photograph is Ennead (1966) by Eva Hesse and R.S.V.P. (1977) by Senga Nengudi. The gallery presents a feeling of precariousness, alluding to the destruction, dysmorphia, and strength that has resulted from ideal beauty standards within art and society. The transition gallery features a video of Joiri Minaya’s performance piece Siboney (2014). Common themes of Minaya’s artwork include the female body, identity, and hierarchies. This performance is a reclaiming of the body from the male gaze, or in the context of this show, from beauty standards. At the center of the final gallery is the modern rendition of Laocoön (1966) by Eva Hesse. Here Hesse creates a genderless, motionless, abstract sculpture; the antithesis of the original. Surrounding Hesse’s sculpture on each side is an installation from Ebony G. Patterson’s series...while the dew is still on the roses... (2018). The center wall features the painting by Kehinde Wiley, The Virgin Martyr St. Cecilia (2008). The artworks by Patterson and Wiley are meant to acknowledge the communities most hurt by beauty standards. Additionally, these artworks contribute to the dismantling of Winckelmann’s standard of artistic beauty by featuring artworks without the stoic faces, or any faces. This forces the viewer to look at the body, to acknowledge the pain. Hesse’s sculpture further expresses the metaphorical destruction of everything Winckelmann appreciated about Laocoön and his sons, allowing the viewer to question concepts of beauty and develop their own opinions.