Java.FEB.2017

“I REMEMBER NOT
REMEMBERING”
at SMoCA
By Jenna Duncan
Using home movies, photo albums and film footage,
the artists selected for Scottsdale Museum of
Contemporary Art’s “I Remember Not Remembering”
take the art of reflecting on a moment in time to
heightened and individualized levels.
Curator of contemporary art Claire Carter says that
in designing this show she pulled from her own
memory—from images that have become lodged in
her mind from countless shows she’s experienced
over the years. “For me, the concept always emerges
from the artwork,” she explains. “I chose these
[items] because there is a sense of storytelling about
the works and a slipperiness [in relation] to time.”
There are some moments we turn over again and
again in our minds, sanding the rough edges. The
mind tricks us into changing the dialogue. Scholars
tell us that memory is faulty and corruptible. This
makes the act of trying to separate the literal,
recorded event from its ghost something interesting.
Carter says she borrowed the show’s title from a
piece called “Skin Destination,” by artists José
Inerzia and Adriana Trujilllo, who are based in
Tijuana, Mexico. The piece has subtitles in English,
and at one moment, Trujillo utters the phrase as
she’s looking at a film of herself as a child dancing.
Carter says that in creating this exhibit she became
interested in what looking back at personal memories
such as this can teach us about ourselves.
As a collection, the still images and videographic
works selected for “I Remember Not Remembering”
collectively look honest and vintage, a lesson in
history. It is almost like finding a shoebox full of
someone’s photos at a thrift store. What were their
lives like? Why were these particular moments
captured in time?
Another intention that Carter set for the show was to
select a myriad of artists from different backgrounds
and periods of time who have worked in various
parts of the world. Inerzia and Trujillo, for example,
created “Skin Destination” in the ’70s and ’80s, while
the images from Janet Cardiff capture Canada in the
1940s, and Yto Barrada’s work presents images from
Morocco from the ’40s to ’70s. They all represent
different cultures and walks of life.
One of the most contemporary works in the show
also takes up the most space. Projected on two
16-foot-wide screens is a video made by artist Kahlil
Joseph. (Joseph is well known for creating Beyoncé’s
“Lemonade” film concept.)
Joseph worked with recording artist Kendrick Lamar,
reconstructing Lamar’s childhood in 1980s L.A.,
during the crack epidemic. Carter explains that to
create the piece, Joseph dug through Lamar’s family
photo archive, shot footage in Compton and utilized
newspaper clippings and found footage from TV news
from that period in time. “When you look at the time
stamps on some of the videos, you realize they were
shot just about a month before the L.A. riots,” she says.
Some of the family photos are beautiful—taking a
girl to prom, for example. Others are very mundane.
But there are also flashes of heavily armed black men
standing in the family’s front yard, basically keeping
guard against mayhem. The artist does an incredibly
convincing job of reconstructing an era, taking
viewers exactly to that place in time.
“I Remember Not Remembering”
February 11 – April 30
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
www.smoca.org
Larry Sultan, detail, Untitled Home Movie Stills, 1984–91, from
the series “Pictures From Home,” 1992. Forty-four inkjet prints
transferred from 16mm film. Each 17 x 22 inches. Collection of the
Estate of Larry Sultan.
Yto Barrada, Hand-Me Downs, 2011. 16mm and 8mm film transferred
to single-channel color digital video with sound, 5:4 format,
running time: 15 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery,
London; Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Beirut; and Galerie Polaris,
Paris. © Yto Barrada
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
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