Bouchra Khalili’s The Mapping Journey Project, is a video exhibition that features eight stories of illegal immigration. Each person tells their story and traces their journey with a marker on a map. Each story is featured on its own screen and the viewers themselves migrate across the space to watch each one on a path that, similar to the storytellers, is not nearly linear.

Although this project is from several years ago, it is especially relevant in today’s political climate. We often hear stories like this on such a large scale, but this piece not only gives people the chance to tell their own, unique story but also gives the viewers the opportunity to hear a first hand account about what this is really like, rather than the way it is portrayed on the news.

One of my favorite parts about this piece was comparing the tones. There were subtitles at the bottom of the screen so you could follow the story. But there were also headphones so you could hear each person’s voice as they retraced their travels. Surprisingly, many of the people told their story with a very matter of fact tone; as if it was as regular as going to work in the morning. This is amazing to me. As someone who has never lived outside of New York, I can’t imagine having to travel the great distances that these people have for work and to support their families.

The setting and the format of this piece really enhances it. I feel that It definitely wouldn’t have been as strong if it were played on a single screen as a series of episodes. Each time you move to another screen you are surrounded by new people (who could be from anywhere in the world being that this piece is not only in New York City but in the Museum of Modern Art) and embark on a micro journey of sorts yourself. This piece was definitely my favorite of all the gallery or museum work I saw this semester.

Steve McQueen’s End Credits is an artistic representation of Paul Robeson’s FBI file from the McCarthy era. The exhibit is on the fifth floor of the Whitney, a huge, nearly empty room, aptly called Open-Space. From the second you step into the room, you are immersed in the piece. On both ends of the room are screens that stretch from ceiling to floor. Both display Robeson’s annotated files scrolling up the screen like credits as the title suggests. Voices of both men and women are reading the information from the files but they do not correspond with either screen. The information interrupts itself with frequent redactions, which are always read in a voice different from the rest of the content. It is nearly impossible to absorb all the information that is being spoken and displayed in front of you (and behind you) but that, of course, is intentional. Unfortunately, I had no prior knowledge of the exhibit or it’s history. Slowly, I began to piece things together. I caught dates like 1946 and 1961 and words like HUAC, confidential informant, pro-communist, and Hollywood. I heard the phrase, “The best country today to test the principles of Marxism might be America,” several times. I still did not know the exact focus of the piece but the tonal element was clear nonetheless. I did some research following my viewing of the exhibit and learned that not only did the FBI have nothing of substance in Robeson’s files, but also this investigation essentially ended his career. I also found out that the material loops around the six-hour mark. Knowing this information makes the piece so much stronger. It is difficult to gather all of the material from the narrations and both screens because it is irrelevant. The files are so extensive but no significant wrongdoing could ever be proven. The effects that this investigation had on Robeson’s career indicate the significance of the title. With all the background information that I now have, I would definitely like to go back and view it again.

Photograph by Matt Carasella, Whitney.org

Laura Poitras’ Astro Noise is a multi-media exhibition that explores post 9/11 issues. Her background as a filmmaker and a journalist is reflected in her work. The piece stretches across several rooms. The first section, which I felt was one of the more impactful ones, features a screen suspended in the center of the room. We watch a looped video of a series of close ups of people as they marvel at the remains of the world trade center in the months immediately following 9/11. The footage is screened in slow motion; this combined with the proximity to the subjects create a very intimate experience. In class we discussed the concept of duration and the way in which the feeling of a piece changes as time passes although the content doesn’t necessarily change. In this situation, I was initially intrigued. What were these people watching? Is it possible that this is footage from September 11th? I think that it is important to mention that although it was not immediately clear what all these people were looking at, I never felt like I needed to see a POV shot. Watching the emotion on their faces was enough. Around the midway point, it begins to feel redundant. However, if you continue to watch, it begins to take on another meaning and that is one of connection. I found the choice to have this set up gallery-style (rather than in a theater setting) to be especially meaningful. The spectators in the film were very much similar to the spectators of the exhibit. We all watch with a certain intensity and then move along when we have seen enough.

As I reached the end of the exhibit a tour was beginning. I heard the tour guide explain that a major theme of the exhibit was lack of transparency regarding the U.S. government and their operations. It became immediately clear why certain aspects of the exhibit were structured the way they were. One of the first things I did when I entered the first space was look and the reverse side of the screen to see if it was playing to same thing. The opposite side was screening clips of interrogations. This exemplifies the theme of lack of transparency. As Americans, and even more so as New Yorkers, the World Trade Center was at the center of the entire situation. But there was so much more that we were unaware of. This theme is also demonstrated in another section that featured small rectangular cut outs in the walls. Inside were things like government documents describing surveillance methods.

Another section displayed the dynamic night sky on the ceiling. Viewers could watch this by lying on a large square bed. This section comes back at the end of the gallery where there is a monitor displaying a heat map of that room in real time. It is interesting to watch as people come and go, their warmth lingers on the bed and a new spectator lies on top of it. But then the realization comes that other people have been watching you as well. This is the artist’s effort to give us insight and a new level of understanding about these things that concern us, yet we know so little about.