by J. Knox
Part of the Series ' Unknown Creatures" by Shen Shoamin at 2010's Art Miami, Photograph J. Knox.
Contemporary art is not supposed to function like the fashion world, with seasonal trends that shoot to popularity only to become outdated just as quickly. But as I walked through row upon row of dealers and their most salable art at Art Basel Miami and the slew of ancillary art fairs this past December, it was impossible not to focus on emerging micro-trends. Three or more instances of a theme, medium or subject matter and I become adamant in my declaration, “we’ve got an art fad on our hands, people.” In 2009 the surge in Michael Jackson art was undeniable (David LaChapelle led the charge, of course. LaChapelle: please don’t sue me for saying this). This year I was sure that glass and mirrors quietly rose to popularity; Hreinn Fridfinnsson’s ‘Untitled, 2009' and Josepha Gasch-Muche’s layered glass ‘paintings’ were exemplars (the declaration of which, admittedly, was likely influenced by Michelangelo Pistoletto’s participation in an Art Basel Conversations panel, and his ‘Broken Mirror Painting’ on display at the Margulies Collection). This trend hunting becomes so all-encompassing, such a palpable bi-product of the art fair machine, that it takes a rare jolt of thoughtfulness to shake me out of it. That jolt came last December in the form of delicately assembled skeletons made from bones, bone meal and glue in the ‘Unknown Creatures’ series by the artist Shen Shaomin. Shaomin creates imagined fossils: the skull of a woodland creature is fused with a long, articulated torso; humanoid hands cap off whip-like pincers; a web of bones radiates out from the spine of a tiny tetrapod. The exhibition of these sculptures appropriates the vernacular of a natural history museum, a pleasant counterbalance to the gallery paradigm. The booth attendant told me the artist had intended to raise questions about the consequences of GMOs. I found myself asking a myriad of other questions, like, for instance, (and forgive me as the scientist within emerges) what does this work suggest about scientific command and our construction of truth?
There is a simple authority in a fossilized skeleton, it provides the most direct and observable evidence of an animal’s historic existence. Shaomin captures that familiar idiom of a natural history museum, but the animals he presents are categorically false. He essentially shows us how easy it is to assume the syntax of expertise without the substance. And while known errors in fossil reconstruction are somewhat rare, Shaomin’s work brings to mind the Piltdown Man, possibly the world’s greatest scientific hoax, in which Charles Dawson (the collector, not to be confused with Charles Darwin, who is coincidentally thematically relevant to the story), announced in 1912 the discovery of a skeletal ‘missing link’ between apes and humans. 40 years later, after vigorous debate, the Piltdown Man was determined to be the jawbone of an organutan combined with the skull of a man; ‘liar, liar, pants on fire’ accusations ensued.
What’s at stake here is the ease with which someone can mimic institutional authority. How confident are we in the accuracy of current bodies of institutional knowledge? In some cases there may be no way to assess this, for the very methodology of inquiry and discourse may be flawed. A recently published article in the New Yorker suggests that the empirical method, that is, the process of data collection and analysis that underpins the majority of scientific discovery throughout history, is inherently riddled with human bias. Some scientists are responding to by trying to uncover why this bias occurs. Shaomin’s work blurs the line between institutional authority, imagination, ecopolitical statement, historical artifact and our perceived future. Which brings me to my last, somewhat unrelated point, that the ‘Unknown Creatures’ series also loops time by presenting a vision of the future in a historical artifact; but I will save that discussion for another day. ;)
Shen Shaomin is represented by Eli Klein Fine Art, a New York gallery that focuses on contemporary Chinese art. Shaomin’s work was shown in Miami this past year at both the Art Miami and Art Asia fairs, and as you can probably tell, I appreciated getting a second look.
