Taryn Simon

In her acclaimed artistic practice, American artist Taryn Simon seems to navigate somewhere between an undercover agent and a collector driven by the fascination with the rare and curious. Her seminal work An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar portrays American society – in photographs and texts – of places that are normally inaccessible to the general public.

After September 11th, when the American media and government were seeking hidden and unknown sites beyond its borders, most notably weapons of mass destruction, Simon chose to look inward at her own country, to confront the boundaries of the citizen, both self-imposed and real, and the divide between privileged and public access to knowledge.

Behind every single picture in An American Index lie years of research, culminating in one single photograph with accompanying text. Together, the texts and images uncover the hidden structures that are concealed beneath the surface in the national culture of the USA, and which encompass the foundation, mythology and everyday functioning of the country.

Here are motifs that touch on science, religion, medicine, entertainment, nature, security and politics. Taryn Simon depicts subjects such as the art collection at CIA’s headquarters and radioactive waste immersed in water – together with the cage in which a death-row prisoner can move around outdoors, an inbred albino tiger and a neo-Nazi youth office.

Taryn Simon (b. 1975) works in media such as photo, text, sculpture, and performance. A common feature of her different projects is the extensive research and a fundamental interest in categories and systems. She has exhibited in most parts of the world and her work is represented in many of the world’s leading museums. Taryn Simon lives and works in New York.