These 5 artists from the Whitney Biennial will make you see the world in a new light

Last week, the 79th edition of the Whitney Biennial opened at the New York museum, showcasing the very best in contemporary art by US-based artists. Curated by Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley, this iteration has surpassed even its predecessor in terms of igniting a furore (at the 2017 instalment Dana Schulz’s painting of the murdered African American boy, Emmett Till, sparked widespread debate). This time, it’s the ongoing controversy over the Whitney’s vice-chairman Warren B. Kanders, whose company is a major manufacturer of tear gas and arms, and his refusal to step down from his position, — despite some 95 employees signing a petition against him — that’s enraged participants, viewers and the press alike. Forensic Architecture — an art collective based out of Goldsmiths, University of London — tackled the controversy head-on with their formally-dynamic and persuasive video piece, Triple-Chaser, which has garnered widespread praise for its brave investigation.

Elsewhere, this year’s Biennial is particularly remarkable as over half of the 75 participating artists are people of colour, and over half are women, marking an extraordinary change for art biennials in general. What’s more this year’s exhibition is extremely striking in terms of its politically-confrontational, emotionally-resonant, and sincere, involved art works. Here, we look at the pieces that are bound to make you the see the world in a new light, question your position, and shake up your perspective. 

Forensic Architecture

This year’s coverage of the Whitney Biennial has been dominated — and rightly so — by London-based collective, Forensic Architecture’s explosive video piece, Triple-Chaser. Directed by Citizenfour’s Laura Poitras and narrated by David Byrne, the short film delivers a cooly deadpan account of the manufacture of teargas and bullets produced by Defense Technology — the company owned by the Whitney’s vice-chairman Warren B. Kanders’.  Over 11-minutes, sequences combining diagrams, data and found footage reveal how these weapons have been used in recent history, including on migrants at the US-Mexico border; other scenes show a man’s leg blasted off in Gaza. The inclusion of the film in the Biennial is an incredible feat for the exhibition organisers, marking a further step in the ongoing campaign to release art institutions from the grip of highly problematic patrons, such as the Sackler family.

Alexandra Bell

Multidisciplinary artist Alexandra Bell has made waves in the past year, with her series Counternarratives  — where she edits and revises New York Times articles to reveal their systemic racial bias. At the Biennial, Bell follows a similar vein, showcasing prints of New York Daily News articles of the infamous 1989 Central Park Five case, where five teenage boys were wrongly accused of raping a white woman in the Park, and were subsequently imprisoned. Through tactics of redaction and highlighting, Bell invites the viewer to examine the legitimacy of journalistic objectivity, while at the same changing the direction of the narrative to emphasise the role of the victim — in this case both the woman and the boys who were wrongly imprisoned.  While deceptively simple in its technique, the prints deliver a blazing critique of how language can be a potent tool in devastating racial violence and oppression.

Elle Pérez

Brooklyn-based artist Elle Pérez creates stirring, highly intimate photographs of bodies and human relationships. At the Whitney Biennial, they have made a series of small colour photographs of bodies undergoing transformation, including sex-reassignment surgery. One particularly powerful image depicts skin pieced with a scalpel, with the word ‘Dyke’ etched in flesh, oozing blood. While these images are not outrightly political in the same way FA’s formidable Triple-Chaser is, Pérez lenses bodies in uncomfortable states not always visible and accepted in mainstream narratives: bleeding, hurting, bruised, changing, and trans bodies are cast in a radically poetic light in this vital study.  

Illana Harris-Babou

One of the youngest artists in this year’s Biennial, Illana Harris-Babou presents three highly unusual videos that explore the relationship between racial oppression in the United States and material culture through the very specific lens of high-end furnishing brands. In the humorous short film, Reparation Hardware — whose name riffs on the luxury American homeware store Restoration Hardware — Harris-Babou sets up an absurdist scenario proposing for reparations for African American slavery by appropriating the advertising language of these stores. “Their liberation was handcrafted,” she sweetly comments as gentle piano music plays in the background. In another scene, she wryly remarks, “Make a space that is free of discrimination, tasteful and refined.” Paired with two more shorts, Human Design and Red Sourcebook, Harris-Babou draws our attention to aspects of society rarely regarded with such inventive consideration.

Las Nietas de Nonó

Puerto Rican collaborative duo Las Nietas de Nonó, consisting of sisters Lydela and Michel Nonó, pose significant questions about racism and the history of colonialism in their multidisciplinary practice — comprising video, installation and performance. At the Biennial, they will be performing Ilstraciones de la Mecánica — a necessary and shocking artistic exploration into clinical trials authorised by the US Government in Puerto Rico, including the horrific — forced —  sterilisation of women until as recently as the 1970s. In one aspect of their visceral and challenging performance, the collaborative duo enact what appears to be a hysterectomy, using organic substances like beetroot and vegetable leather. While their work is brave and confrontational, ultimately their desire is to educate, particularly around the historical exclusion of black communities in their native Puerto Rico.

The Whitney Biennial runs through to 22 September at the Whitney Museum of American Art.