The processes of identity production and image production are intertwined in artist Martine Syms’ (b.1988) practice. Syms is known for her use聽of original and found content, which is often聽reframed to expose the public’s constant interaction with and appropriation of mass culture for social media purposes. From 27 May, the , New York, will stage the first US solo museum exhibition of the artist’s work.聽Projects 106: Martine Syms features an immersive installation displaying聽a never-before-seen feature-length film titled聽Incense, Sweaters, and Ice (2017).
Shot on location, the film travels from Mississippi to Los Angeles via St. Louis, reflecting the legacies of the Great Migration. It follows three protagonists – Girl, her great-aunt Mrs. Queen Esther Bernetta White and new acquaintance WB (鈥渨hiteboy鈥) – as they move between watching, being watched and remaining unseen. The narrative will be accompanied by a series聽of prints that superimpose photographic stills from Incense, Sweaters, and Ice onto found American movie posters.聽Still in its planning stage, an artist-designed augmented reality (AR) app devised in conjunction with the exhibition will聽enable聽viewers to unlock content from the film鈥檚 narrative through the posters.
The exhibition’s interactive element creates an innovative exchange between audience and artist, still and moving images, and screens both public and private. Much of Syms’ oeuvre examines the overlap between public and private realms, reflecting on how our own personal narrative is becoming increasingly viewed through the mediating lens of mass culture. Using this as a departure point, this new聽film explores聽a shared cultural inheritance of television shows, advertisements, police cameras, Vines and original photography to create a familial, cultural, and historical collage.
Projects 106: Martine Syms,聽27 May – 16 July,聽MoMA PS1, New York.
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Credits
1. Still from聽Incense, Sweaters, and Ice,聽2017. Courtesy of MoMA.
