Kahlil Joseph, m.A.A.d., 2014. Two-channel film work with audio, HD digital; running time: 15 minutes 26 seconds. Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Home movies and family photos chronicle stories that parallel the histories of places and cultural moments. These are private records that, for the most part, remain private. I Remember Not Remembering, a group show opening in February 2017 at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, breaks this mold, making public the private histories of 12 international artists.In doing so, the show reveals commonalities between individual practices in memory-making. Three lounging ladies on a sun-soaked pier could be your three favorite aunties in their glamor days; a still of a pep rally brings back traumatic memories of faking fanaticism on game day; and a little boy stumbling through a hula-hoop might as well be a younger you. But these memories are not yours: they belong to artist Yto Barrada, whose scenes tell a subtle story of sociality in post-Colonial Morocco; and to filmmaker Kahlil Joseph, who captures the zeitgeist of Los Angeles at the time of the race riots; and to artist Larry Sultan, whose movie stills detail daily life in 1960s suburban America.“Together,” the show’s press release describes, “we assemble a shared history that resides in memory, desire, and imagery—a narrative both subjective and communal.”Below, meet the ghosts of the pasts of Barrada, Joseph, and Sultan, as well as of Hollis Frampton, Christian Boltanski, Adriana Trujillo, José Inerzia, Matthew Buckingham, Janet Cardiff, George Bures Miller, Christian Widmer, and Hannah Wilke.I Remember Not Remembering opens February 11, 2017 at SMoCA. To find more information about the show, visit the museum's website.Related:Facebook Photos and Collages Converge in Portraits of Digital LivesDestroyed Family Photos Reveal Hidden Truths in the Art of Odette England15 Vintage Polaroids Get Animated into Hilarious GIFs
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