An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art
ShowingMay 19, 2017 - July 16, 2017
Hayden and Reference Galleries
An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art brings together a group of twelve international artists to examine the recent multidisciplinary turn towards affect by focusing on art works that explore how bodies are shaped, modified, or affected by the intensity of their interaction. Many contemporary artists engage with modes of address and content that is tethered to affect, yet at the same eschew sentimentality and expressivity. The exhibition presents works that variously investigate our intimate relationships with objects; works that act as vehicles for affective engagement or transactions of desire, including objects that carry the traces of things we can’t see but have to trust, intuit, or perceive in ways that are not related to vision or hearing; and works that are engaged with actions of interpersonal care, trust, intimacy, or love.
Artists included are Andrea Büttner, Sophie Calle, Alejandro Cesarco, Jason Dodge, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Antonia Hirsch, Jill Magid, Park McArthur, Lisa Tan, Erika Vogt, Susanne M. Winterling, and Anicka Yi.
An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art is curated by Henriette Huldisch, Curator, MIT List Visual Arts Center. The exhibition is accompanied by a 96-page fully illustrated catalogue published by Prestel/DelMonico in association with the MIT List Visual Arts Center. Edited by Henriette Huldisch, the catalogue features essay contributions by Eugenie Brinkema, Associate Professor, Literature Section, MIT; Johanna Burton, Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement at the New Museum; and Emily Watlington, Curatorial Research Assistant, MIT List Visual Arts Center and graduate student History, Theory and Criticism of Art and Architecture, MIT.
Download the Education Brochure
An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art is generously supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Exhibitions at the List Center are made possible with the support of Fotene Demoulas & Tom Coté, Jane & Neil Pappalardo, Cynthia & John Reed, and Terry & Rick Stone. In-kind media sponsorship provided by 90.9 WBUR.
General operating support is provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Council for the Arts at MIT, the Office of the Associate Provost at MIT, the MIT School of Architecture + Planning, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and many generous individual donors. The Advisory Committee Members of the List Visual Arts Center are gratefully acknowledged.
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Lisa Tan, Waves, 2014-15
HD video with sound, 19:12 minutes
Installation view An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art at MIT List Visual Arts Center
Courtesy of the artist and Galleri Riis, Oslo and Stockholm
Photo: Peter Harris Studio -
Erika Vogt, Secret Traveler Navigator, 2010
16mm and Digital video, color, sound, 12 min.; wooden stand, enamel painted screen surface, and painted interior room.
Courtesy the artist and Overduin & Co., Los Angeles -
Antonia Hirsch, Object T, 2015
HD video, stereo audio, headphones, granite, steel, heating hardware
12’6” looped on 92cm x 54cm flat screen / 92cm x 54cm x 35cm granite monolith
Courtesy the artist and Repubic Gallery, Vancouver -
Andrea Büttner, Little Works, 2007
HD video, 10:42 minutes
Courtesy of Hollybush Gardens, London and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. ©Andrea Büttner / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016. -
Installation view: An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art at MIT List Visual Arts Center
Photo: Peter Harris Studio -
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (Loverboy), 1989
Blue fabric and hanging device, dimensions vary with installation
Private collection, New York
© The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation
Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Installation view An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art at MIT List Visual Arts Center
Photo: Peter Harris Studio -
Sophie Calle, Secrets, 2014
Two safes, engraved plaque, framed contract
Collection Alex Hank © 2017 Sophie Calle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ ADAGP, Paris.
Image courtesy Sophie Calle and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Photo: Steven Probert -
Installation view: An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art at MIT List Visual Arts Center
Photo: Peter Harris Studio
Press Coverage
Pictures at an Exhibition | An Inventory of Shimmers at MIT List Visual Arts Center | ARTnews
Getting Up Close and Personal at MIT | Boston Globe | Cate McQuaid
An Inventory of Shimmers | Harper's Bazaar