ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Taryn Simon - Artist
With a large-format camera and a knack for talking her way into forbidden zones, Taryn Simon photographs portions of the American infrastructure inaccessible to its inhabitants.

Why you should listen

Taryn Simon is a multidisciplinary artist working in photography, text, sculpture and performance. Guided by an interest in systems of categorization and classification, her practice involves extensive research into the power and structure of secrecy and the precarious nature of survival. Her works have been the subject of exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2016-17); The Albertinum, Dresden (2016); Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2016); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2016); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2015); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Tate Modern, London (2011); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2011); and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007). 

In An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, Simon compiles an inventory of what lies hidden and out-of-view within the borders of the United States. She examines a culture through documentation of subjects from domains including: science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security and religion. Confronting the divide between those with and without the privilege of access, her collection reflects and reveals that which is integral to America’s foundation, mythology and daily functioning. 

A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII was produced over a four-year period (2008–11) during which Simon traveled around the world researching and recording bloodlines and their related stories. In each of the eighteen "chapters" comprising the work, the external forces of territory, power, circumstance or religion collide with the internal forces of psychological and physical inheritance. The subjects documented by Simon include victims of genocide in Bosnia, test rabbits infected with a lethal disease in Australia, the first woman to hijack an aircraft, and the living dead in India. Her collection is at once cohesive and arbitrary, mapping the relationships among chance, blood and other components of fate.

Permanent collections include Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. Her work was included in the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Simon's installation, An Occupation of Loss (2016), co-commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory and Artangel, premiered in New York in 2016. The performance will be held again in London in 2018. Simon is a graduate of Brown University and a Guggenheim Fellow. She lives and works in New York.

More profile about the speaker
Taryn Simon | Speaker | TED.com
TEDSalon London Fall 2011

Taryn Simon: The stories behind the bloodlines

Filmed:
813,142 views

Taryn Simon captures the essence of vast, generation-spanning stories by photographing the descendants of people at the center of the narrative. In this riveting talk she shows a stream of these stories from all over the world, investigating the nature of genealogy and the way our lives are shaped by the interplay of many different forces.
- Artist
With a large-format camera and a knack for talking her way into forbidden zones, Taryn Simon photographs portions of the American infrastructure inaccessible to its inhabitants. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:16
This is Shivdutt Yadav,
0
1000
2000
00:18
and he's from Uttar Pradesh, India.
1
3000
3000
00:21
Now Shivdutt was visiting the local land registry office
2
6000
3000
00:24
in Uttar Pradesh,
3
9000
2000
00:26
and he discovered
4
11000
2000
00:28
that official records were listing him as dead.
5
13000
2000
00:30
His land was no longer registered
6
15000
2000
00:32
in his name.
7
17000
2000
00:34
His brothers, Chandrabhan and Phoolchand,
8
19000
3000
00:37
were also listed as dead.
9
22000
2000
00:39
Family members had bribed officials
10
24000
2000
00:41
to interrupt the hereditary transfer of land
11
26000
3000
00:44
by having the brothers declared dead,
12
29000
2000
00:46
allowing them to inherit
13
31000
2000
00:48
their father's share of the ancestral farmland.
14
33000
3000
00:51
Because of this, all three brothers and their families
15
36000
3000
00:54
had to vacate their home.
16
39000
3000
00:57
According to the Yadav family,
17
42000
2000
00:59
the local court has been scheduling a case review
18
44000
2000
01:01
since 2001,
19
46000
2000
01:03
but a judge has never appeared.
20
48000
3000
01:06
There are several instances in Uttar Pradesh
21
51000
2000
01:08
of people dying
22
53000
2000
01:10
before their case is given a proper review.
23
55000
3000
01:13
Shivdutt's father's death and a want for his property
24
58000
3000
01:16
led to this corruption.
25
61000
3000
01:19
He was laid to rest in the Ganges River,
26
64000
2000
01:21
where the dead are cremated along the banks of the river
27
66000
2000
01:23
or tied to heavy stones and sunk in the water.
28
68000
4000
01:27
Photographing these brothers
29
72000
2000
01:29
was a disorienting exchange
30
74000
2000
01:31
because on paper they don't exist,
31
76000
2000
01:33
and a photograph is so often used as an evidence of life.
32
78000
3000
01:36
Yet, these men remain dead.
33
81000
3000
01:39
This quandary led to the title of the project,
34
84000
2000
01:41
which considers in many ways
35
86000
3000
01:44
that we are all the living dead
36
89000
2000
01:46
and that we in some ways represent
37
91000
2000
01:48
ghosts of the past and the future.
38
93000
3000
01:53
So this story is the first of 18 chapters
39
98000
2000
01:55
in my new body of work titled "A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters."
40
100000
5000
02:00
And for this work,
41
105000
2000
02:02
I traveled around the world over a four-year period
42
107000
2000
02:04
researching and recording bloodlines
43
109000
2000
02:06
and their related stories.
44
111000
3000
02:09
I was interested in ideas surrounding fate
45
114000
3000
02:12
and whether our fate is determined
46
117000
2000
02:14
by blood, chance or circumstance.
47
119000
3000
02:19
The subjects I documented
48
124000
2000
02:21
ranged from feuding families in Brazil
49
126000
2000
02:23
to victims of genocide in Bosnia
50
128000
2000
02:25
to the first woman to hijack an airplane
51
130000
2000
02:27
and the living dead in India.
52
132000
3000
02:30
In each chapter, you can see the external forces
53
135000
3000
02:33
of governance, power and territory or religion
54
138000
3000
02:36
colliding with the internal forces
55
141000
2000
02:38
of psychological and physical inheritance.
56
143000
4000
02:42
Each work that I make
57
147000
2000
02:44
is comprised of three segments.
58
149000
2000
02:46
On the left are one or more portrait panels
59
151000
3000
02:49
in which I systematically order
60
154000
2000
02:51
the members of a given bloodline.
61
156000
2000
02:53
This is followed by a text panel, it's designed in scroll form,
62
158000
3000
02:56
in which I construct
63
161000
2000
02:58
the narrative at stake.
64
163000
2000
03:00
And then on the right is what I refer to as a footnote panel.
65
165000
3000
03:03
It's a space that's more intuitive
66
168000
2000
03:05
in which I present fragments of the story,
67
170000
2000
03:07
beginnings of other stories, photographic evidence.
68
172000
3000
03:10
And it's meant to kind of reflect
69
175000
3000
03:13
how we engage with histories or stories on the Internet,
70
178000
2000
03:15
in a less linear form.
71
180000
2000
03:17
So it's more disordered.
72
182000
2000
03:19
And this disorder is in direct contrast
73
184000
3000
03:22
to the unalterable order of a bloodline.
74
187000
3000
03:27
In my past projects I've often worked in serial form,
75
192000
3000
03:30
documenting things that have
76
195000
2000
03:32
the appearance of being comprehensive
77
197000
2000
03:34
through a determined title and a determined presentation,
78
199000
3000
03:37
but in fact, are fairly abstract.
79
202000
3000
03:40
In this project I wanted to work in the opposite direction
80
205000
2000
03:42
and find an absolute catalog,
81
207000
3000
03:45
something that I couldn't interrupt, curate or edit by choice.
82
210000
4000
03:49
This led me to blood.
83
214000
2000
03:51
A bloodline is determined and ordered.
84
216000
3000
03:54
But the project centers
85
219000
2000
03:56
on the collision of order and disorder --
86
221000
2000
03:58
the order of blood butting up against the disorder
87
223000
3000
04:01
represented in the often chaotic and violent stories
88
226000
3000
04:04
that are the subjects of my chapters.
89
229000
3000
04:07
In chapter two, I photograph the descendants of Arthur Ruppin.
90
232000
4000
04:11
He was sent in 1907 to Palestine
91
236000
3000
04:14
by the Zionist organization
92
239000
2000
04:16
to look at areas for Jewish settlement
93
241000
3000
04:19
and acquire land for Jewish settlement.
94
244000
3000
04:22
He oversaw land acquisition
95
247000
2000
04:24
on behalf of the Palestine Land Development Company
96
249000
3000
04:27
whose work led to the establishment
97
252000
2000
04:29
of a Jewish state.
98
254000
3000
04:32
Through my research at the Zionist Archives in Jerusalem,
99
257000
3000
04:35
I wanted to look at the early paperwork
100
260000
2000
04:37
of the establishment of the Jewish state.
101
262000
2000
04:39
And I found these maps which you see here.
102
264000
3000
04:42
And these are studies
103
267000
2000
04:44
commissioned by the Zionist organization
104
269000
2000
04:46
for alternative areas for Jewish settlement.
105
271000
2000
04:48
In this, I was interested in the consequences
106
273000
2000
04:50
of geography
107
275000
2000
04:52
and imagining how the world would be different
108
277000
2000
04:54
if Israel were in Uganda,
109
279000
3000
04:57
which is what these maps demonstrate.
110
282000
2000
04:59
These archives in Jerusalem,
111
284000
2000
05:01
they maintain a card index file
112
286000
2000
05:03
of the earliest immigrants and applicants for immigration
113
288000
3000
05:06
to Palestine, and later Israel,
114
291000
2000
05:08
from 1919 to 1965.
115
293000
3000
05:13
Chapter three:
116
298000
2000
05:15
Joseph Nyamwanda Jura Ondijo
117
300000
3000
05:18
treated patients outside of Kisumu, Kenya
118
303000
3000
05:21
for AIDS, tuberculosis, infertility,
119
306000
3000
05:24
mental illness, evil spirits.
120
309000
2000
05:26
He's most often paid for his services
121
311000
3000
05:29
in cash, cows or goats.
122
314000
3000
05:32
But sometimes when his female patients
123
317000
2000
05:34
can't afford his services,
124
319000
2000
05:36
their families give the women to Jura
125
321000
3000
05:39
in exchange for medical treatment.
126
324000
2000
05:41
As a result of these transactions,
127
326000
2000
05:43
Jura has nine wives,
128
328000
2000
05:45
32 children
129
330000
2000
05:47
and 63 grandchildren.
130
332000
2000
05:49
In his bloodline you see the children and grandchildren here.
131
334000
3000
05:54
Two of his wives were brought to him
132
339000
2000
05:56
suffering from infertility
133
341000
2000
05:58
and he cured them,
134
343000
3000
06:01
three for evil spirits,
135
346000
2000
06:03
one for an asthmatic condition and severe chest pain
136
348000
3000
06:06
and two wives Ondijo claims he took for love,
137
351000
3000
06:09
paying their families a total of 16 cows.
138
354000
3000
06:12
One wife deserted him
139
357000
2000
06:14
and another passed away during treatment for evil spirits.
140
359000
4000
06:18
Polygamy is widely practiced in Kenya.
141
363000
3000
06:21
It's common among a privileged class
142
366000
2000
06:23
capable of paying numerous dowries
143
368000
2000
06:25
and keeping multiple homes.
144
370000
2000
06:27
Instances of prominent social and political figures
145
372000
3000
06:30
in polygamous relationships
146
375000
2000
06:32
has led to the perception of polygamy
147
377000
3000
06:35
as a symbol of wealth, status and power.
148
380000
5000
06:40
You may notice in several of the chapters that I photographed
149
385000
3000
06:43
there are empty portraits.
150
388000
2000
06:45
These empty portraits represent individuals,
151
390000
2000
06:47
living individuals, who couldn't be present.
152
392000
3000
06:50
And the reasons for their absence are given in my text panel.
153
395000
3000
06:53
They include dengue fever,
154
398000
2000
06:55
imprisonment, army service,
155
400000
2000
06:57
women not allowed to be photographed
156
402000
2000
06:59
for religious and cultural reasons.
157
404000
3000
07:02
And in this particular chapter,
158
407000
2000
07:04
it's children whose mothers
159
409000
2000
07:06
wouldn't allow them to travel to the photographic shoot
160
411000
2000
07:08
for fear that their fathers would kidnap them during it.
161
413000
4000
07:14
Twenty-four European rabbits
162
419000
2000
07:16
were brought to Australia in 1859
163
421000
2000
07:18
by a British settler
164
423000
2000
07:20
for sporting purposes, for hunting.
165
425000
3000
07:23
And within a hundred years,
166
428000
2000
07:25
that population of 24 had exploded to half a billion.
167
430000
4000
07:29
The European rabbit has no natural predators in Australia,
168
434000
3000
07:32
and it competes with native wildlife
169
437000
2000
07:34
and damages native plants
170
439000
2000
07:36
and degrades the land.
171
441000
2000
07:38
Since the 1950s,
172
443000
2000
07:40
Australia has been introducing lethal diseases
173
445000
3000
07:43
into the wild rabbit population
174
448000
2000
07:45
to control growth.
175
450000
2000
07:47
These rabbits were bred at a government facility,
176
452000
3000
07:50
Biosecurity Queensland,
177
455000
2000
07:52
where they bred three bloodlines of rabbits
178
457000
2000
07:54
and have infected them with a lethal disease
179
459000
2000
07:56
and are monitoring their progress
180
461000
2000
07:58
to see if it will effectively kill them.
181
463000
3000
08:01
So they're testing its virulence.
182
466000
2000
08:03
During the course of this trial, all of the rabbits died,
183
468000
3000
08:06
except for a few, which were euthanized.
184
471000
3000
08:09
Haigh's Chocolate,
185
474000
2000
08:11
in collaboration
186
476000
2000
08:13
with the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia,
187
478000
3000
08:16
stopped all production of the Easter Bunny in chocolate
188
481000
3000
08:19
and has replaced it with the Easter Bilby.
189
484000
3000
08:22
Now this was done to counter
190
487000
2000
08:24
the annual celebration of rabbits
191
489000
2000
08:26
and presumably make the public more comfortable
192
491000
2000
08:28
with the killing of rabbits
193
493000
2000
08:30
and promote an animal that's native to Australia,
194
495000
2000
08:32
and actually an animal that is threatened
195
497000
2000
08:34
by the European rabbit.
196
499000
3000
08:38
In chapter seven, I focus on the effects
197
503000
2000
08:40
of a genocidal act
198
505000
2000
08:42
on one bloodline.
199
507000
2000
08:44
So over a two-day period,
200
509000
2000
08:46
six individuals from this bloodline
201
511000
2000
08:48
were killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
202
513000
2000
08:50
This is the only work
203
515000
2000
08:52
in which I visually represent the dead.
204
517000
2000
08:54
But I only represent those
205
519000
2000
08:56
that were killed in the Srebrenica massacre,
206
521000
2000
08:58
which is recorded as the largest mass murder in Europe
207
523000
3000
09:01
since the Second World War.
208
526000
3000
09:04
And during this massacre,
209
529000
2000
09:06
8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys
210
531000
2000
09:08
were systematically executed.
211
533000
3000
09:11
So when you look at a detail of this work,
212
536000
3000
09:14
you can see, the man on the upper-left
213
539000
2000
09:16
is the father of the woman sitting next to him.
214
541000
2000
09:18
Her name is Zumra.
215
543000
2000
09:20
She is followed by her four children,
216
545000
3000
09:23
all of whom were killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
217
548000
3000
09:26
Following those four children is Zumra's younger sister
218
551000
3000
09:29
who is then followed by her children
219
554000
2000
09:31
who were killed as well.
220
556000
3000
09:34
During the time I was in Bosnia,
221
559000
2000
09:36
the mortal remains of Zumra's eldest son
222
561000
2000
09:38
were exhumed from a mass grave.
223
563000
2000
09:40
And I was therefore able to photograph
224
565000
2000
09:42
the fully assembled remains.
225
567000
2000
09:44
However, the other individuals
226
569000
2000
09:46
are represented by these blue slides,
227
571000
2000
09:48
which show tooth and bone samples
228
573000
2000
09:50
that were matched to DNA evidence collected from family members
229
575000
3000
09:53
to prove they were the identities
230
578000
2000
09:55
of those individuals.
231
580000
2000
09:57
They've all been given a proper burial,
232
582000
2000
09:59
so what remains are these blue slides
233
584000
2000
10:01
at the International Commission for Missing Persons.
234
586000
3000
10:06
These are personal effects
235
591000
2000
10:08
dug up from a mass grave
236
593000
2000
10:10
that are awaiting identification from family members
237
595000
3000
10:13
and graffiti at the Potochari battery factory,
238
598000
3000
10:16
which was where the Dutch U.N. soldiers were staying,
239
601000
3000
10:19
and also the Serbian soldiers later
240
604000
2000
10:21
during the times of the executions.
241
606000
4000
10:25
This is video footage used at the Milosevic trial,
242
610000
2000
10:27
which from top to bottom
243
612000
2000
10:29
shows a Serbian scorpion unit
244
614000
2000
10:31
being blessed by an Orthodox priest
245
616000
3000
10:34
before rounding up the boys and men
246
619000
2000
10:36
and killing them.
247
621000
2000
10:40
Chapter 15 is more of a performance piece.
248
625000
4000
10:44
I solicited China's State Council Information Office in 2009
249
629000
4000
10:48
to select a multi-generational bloodline
250
633000
3000
10:51
to represent China for this project.
251
636000
3000
10:54
They chose a large family from Beijing for its size,
252
639000
3000
10:57
and they declined to give me
253
642000
2000
10:59
any further reasoning for their choice.
254
644000
2000
11:01
This is one of the rare situations
255
646000
2000
11:03
where I have no empty portraits.
256
648000
2000
11:05
Everyone showed up.
257
650000
2000
11:07
You can also see the evolution of the one-child-only policy
258
652000
3000
11:10
as it travels through the bloodline.
259
655000
2000
11:14
Previously known as the Department of Foreign Propaganda,
260
659000
3000
11:17
the State Council Information Office
261
662000
3000
11:20
is responsible for all of China's external publicity operations.
262
665000
4000
11:24
It controls all foreign media and image production
263
669000
3000
11:27
outside of China
264
672000
2000
11:29
from foreign media working within China.
265
674000
2000
11:31
It also monitors the Internet
266
676000
2000
11:33
and instructs local media
267
678000
2000
11:35
on how to handle any potentially controversial issues,
268
680000
3000
11:38
including Tibet, ethnic minorities,
269
683000
3000
11:41
Human Rights, religion,
270
686000
2000
11:43
democracy movements and terrorism.
271
688000
3000
11:46
For the footnote panel in this work,
272
691000
3000
11:49
this office instructed me
273
694000
2000
11:51
to photograph their central television tower in Beijing.
274
696000
3000
11:54
And I also photographed the gift bag they gave me
275
699000
2000
11:56
when I left.
276
701000
2000
12:02
These are the descendants of Hans Frank
277
707000
2000
12:04
who was Hitler's personal legal advisor
278
709000
3000
12:07
and governor general of occupied Poland.
279
712000
3000
12:10
Now this bloodline includes numerous empty portraits,
280
715000
3000
12:13
highlighting a complex relationship
281
718000
2000
12:15
to one's family history.
282
720000
3000
12:18
The reasons for these absences
283
723000
2000
12:20
include people who declined participation.
284
725000
3000
12:23
There's also parents who participated
285
728000
3000
12:26
who wouldn't let their children participate
286
731000
2000
12:28
because they thought they were too young to decide for themselves.
287
733000
3000
12:31
Another section of the family
288
736000
2000
12:33
presented their clothing, as opposed to their physical presence,
289
738000
3000
12:36
because they didn't want to be identified
290
741000
2000
12:38
with the past that I was highlighting.
291
743000
2000
12:40
And finally, another individual
292
745000
2000
12:42
sat for me from behind
293
747000
2000
12:44
and later rescinded his participation,
294
749000
2000
12:46
so I had to pixelate him out so he's unrecognizable.
295
751000
3000
12:52
In the footnote panel that accompanies this work
296
757000
2000
12:54
I photographed an official Adolph Hitler postage stamp
297
759000
4000
12:58
and an imitation of that stamp
298
763000
2000
13:00
produced by British Intelligence
299
765000
2000
13:02
with Hans Frank's image on it.
300
767000
2000
13:04
It was released in Poland
301
769000
2000
13:06
to create friction between Frank and Hitler,
302
771000
2000
13:08
so that Hitler would imagine
303
773000
2000
13:10
Frank was trying to usurp his power.
304
775000
2000
13:14
Again, talking about fate,
305
779000
2000
13:16
I was interested in the stories and fate
306
781000
2000
13:18
of particular works of art.
307
783000
2000
13:20
These paintings were taken by Hans Frank
308
785000
3000
13:23
during the time of the Third Reich.
309
788000
2000
13:25
And I'm interested in the impact of their absence and presence through time.
310
790000
4000
13:29
They are Leonardo da Vinci's "Lady With an Ermine,"
311
794000
3000
13:32
Rembrandt's "Landscape With Good Samaritan"
312
797000
3000
13:35
and Raphael's "Portrait of a Youth,"
313
800000
2000
13:37
which has never been found.
314
802000
4000
13:41
Chapter 12 highlights
315
806000
2000
13:43
people being born into a battle that is not of their making,
316
808000
3000
13:46
but becomes their own.
317
811000
2000
13:48
So this is the Ferraz family
318
813000
2000
13:50
and the Novaes family.
319
815000
2000
13:52
And they are in an active blood feud.
320
817000
3000
13:55
This feud has been going on since 1991
321
820000
3000
13:58
in Northeast Brazil in Pernambuco,
322
823000
3000
14:01
and it involved the deaths
323
826000
2000
14:03
of 20 members of the families
324
828000
2000
14:05
and 40 others associated with the feud,
325
830000
2000
14:07
including hired hit men, innocent bystanders
326
832000
3000
14:10
and friends.
327
835000
3000
14:13
Tensions between these two families date back to 1913
328
838000
3000
14:16
when there was a dispute over local political power.
329
841000
3000
14:19
But it got violent in the last two decades
330
844000
3000
14:22
and includes decapitation
331
847000
2000
14:24
and the death of two mayors.
332
849000
2000
14:26
Installed into a protective wall
333
851000
2000
14:28
surrounding the suburban home of Louis Novaes,
334
853000
3000
14:31
who's the head of the Novaes family,
335
856000
2000
14:33
are these turret holes,
336
858000
2000
14:35
which were used for shooting and looking.
337
860000
3000
14:38
Brazil's northeast state of Pernambuco
338
863000
3000
14:41
is one of the nation's most violent regions.
339
866000
3000
14:44
It's rooted in a principle of retributive justice,
340
869000
2000
14:46
or an eye for an eye,
341
871000
2000
14:48
so retaliatory killings
342
873000
2000
14:50
have led to several deaths in the area.
343
875000
3000
14:53
This story, like many of the stories in my chapters,
344
878000
3000
14:56
reads almost as an archetypal episode,
345
881000
3000
14:59
like something out of Shakespeare,
346
884000
2000
15:01
that's happening now and will happen again in the future.
347
886000
3000
15:04
I'm interested in these ideas of repetition.
348
889000
3000
15:09
So after I returned home, I received word
349
894000
2000
15:11
that one member of the family
350
896000
2000
15:13
had been shot 30 times in the face.
351
898000
3000
15:18
Chapter 17
352
903000
2000
15:20
is an exploration of the absence of a bloodline
353
905000
3000
15:23
and the absence of a history.
354
908000
2000
15:25
Children at this Ukrainian orphanage
355
910000
2000
15:27
are between the ages of six and 16.
356
912000
3000
15:30
This piece is ordered by age
357
915000
2000
15:32
because it can't be ordered by blood.
358
917000
2000
15:34
In a 12-month period when I was at the orphanage,
359
919000
3000
15:37
only one child had been adopted.
360
922000
3000
15:40
Children have to leave the orphanage at age 16,
361
925000
3000
15:43
despite the fact that there's often nowhere for them to go.
362
928000
5000
15:48
It's commonly reported in Ukraine
363
933000
2000
15:50
that children, when leaving the orphanage
364
935000
2000
15:52
are targeted for human trafficking,
365
937000
2000
15:54
child pornography and prostitution.
366
939000
3000
15:57
Many have to turn to criminal activity for their survival,
367
942000
3000
16:00
and high rates of suicide are recorded.
368
945000
5000
16:05
This is a boys' bedroom.
369
950000
2000
16:07
There's an insufficient supply of beds at the orphanage
370
952000
2000
16:09
and not enough warm clothing.
371
954000
2000
16:11
Children bathe infrequently
372
956000
2000
16:13
because the hot water isn't turned on until October.
373
958000
3000
16:16
This is a girls' bedroom.
374
961000
2000
16:18
And the director listed the orphanage's most urgent needs
375
963000
4000
16:22
as an industrial size washing machine and dryer,
376
967000
3000
16:25
four vacuum cleaners, two computers,
377
970000
2000
16:27
a video projector, a copy machine,
378
972000
3000
16:30
winter shoes and a dentist's drill.
379
975000
3000
16:33
This photograph, which I took at the orphanage of one of the classrooms,
380
978000
4000
16:37
shows a sign which I had translated when I got home.
381
982000
3000
16:40
And it reads: "Those who do not know their past
382
985000
3000
16:43
are not worthy of their future."
383
988000
4000
16:47
There are many more chapters in this project.
384
992000
2000
16:49
This is just an abridged rendering
385
994000
2000
16:51
of over a thousand images.
386
996000
2000
16:53
And this mass pile of images and stories
387
998000
3000
16:56
forms an archive.
388
1001000
2000
16:58
And within this accumulation of images and texts,
389
1003000
3000
17:01
I'm struggling to find patterns
390
1006000
2000
17:03
and imagine that the narratives that surround the lives we lead
391
1008000
4000
17:07
are just as coded as blood itself.
392
1012000
4000
17:11
But archives exist
393
1016000
2000
17:13
because there's something that can't necessarily be articulated.
394
1018000
3000
17:16
Something is said in the gaps
395
1021000
2000
17:18
between all the information that's collected.
396
1023000
3000
17:21
And there's this relentless persistence
397
1026000
3000
17:24
of birth and death
398
1029000
2000
17:26
and an unending collection of stories in between.
399
1031000
3000
17:29
It's almost machine-like
400
1034000
2000
17:31
the way people are born and people die,
401
1036000
2000
17:33
and the stories keep coming and coming.
402
1038000
3000
17:36
And in this, I'm considering,
403
1041000
3000
17:39
is this actual accumulation
404
1044000
2000
17:41
leading to some sort of evolution,
405
1046000
3000
17:44
or are we on repeat
406
1049000
2000
17:46
over and over again?
407
1051000
3000
17:49
Thank you.
408
1054000
2000
17:51
(Applause)
409
1056000
2000

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Taryn Simon - Artist
With a large-format camera and a knack for talking her way into forbidden zones, Taryn Simon photographs portions of the American infrastructure inaccessible to its inhabitants.

Why you should listen

Taryn Simon is a multidisciplinary artist working in photography, text, sculpture and performance. Guided by an interest in systems of categorization and classification, her practice involves extensive research into the power and structure of secrecy and the precarious nature of survival. Her works have been the subject of exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2016-17); The Albertinum, Dresden (2016); Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2016); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2016); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2015); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Tate Modern, London (2011); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2011); and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007). 

In An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, Simon compiles an inventory of what lies hidden and out-of-view within the borders of the United States. She examines a culture through documentation of subjects from domains including: science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security and religion. Confronting the divide between those with and without the privilege of access, her collection reflects and reveals that which is integral to America’s foundation, mythology and daily functioning. 

A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII was produced over a four-year period (2008–11) during which Simon traveled around the world researching and recording bloodlines and their related stories. In each of the eighteen "chapters" comprising the work, the external forces of territory, power, circumstance or religion collide with the internal forces of psychological and physical inheritance. The subjects documented by Simon include victims of genocide in Bosnia, test rabbits infected with a lethal disease in Australia, the first woman to hijack an aircraft, and the living dead in India. Her collection is at once cohesive and arbitrary, mapping the relationships among chance, blood and other components of fate.

Permanent collections include Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. Her work was included in the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Simon's installation, An Occupation of Loss (2016), co-commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory and Artangel, premiered in New York in 2016. The performance will be held again in London in 2018. Simon is a graduate of Brown University and a Guggenheim Fellow. She lives and works in New York.

More profile about the speaker
Taryn Simon | Speaker | TED.com