more  from  the

Jan/Feb  2015  issue:  

Multi

–  David  Reinfurt

(O-­R-­G)  

Logistics

Make  the  World

–  Jesse  LeCavalier  

Losing  Interest

–  Shumon  Basar  

On  Vernacular  Computing  

–  Jacob  Gaboury  

Review:

Extrastatecraft  by  KellerEasterling  

–  Carson  Chan  

Review:

Amie  Siegel:  Provenance  

–  by  Rattanamol  Singh  Johal  

Glossary:  Curate  

–  Barry  Bergdoll  

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Review:Amie Siegel: Provenanceat  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York Text  /  Rattanamol  Singh  Johal

Amie  Siegel,  Provenance  (still),  2013,  HD  video,  color,  sound,  40  min.  and  30  sec.  

[courtesy  of  Simon  Preston  Gallery,  New  York]

The  passages  that  populate  Amie  Siegel's  2013  work  Provenance  [June  23,  2014—January  4,  2015]  appear  seamless  and  unhindered.  Her  expertly  executed  three-­partinstallation  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  consists  of  a  central  40-­minute  videoprojection  (Provenance),  a  framed  spread  from  the  printer's  proof  of  an  auctioncatalogue  (Christie's,  October  19,  2013),  and  a  short  video  set  in  the  auction  room  atChristie's  London,  which  documents  the  bidding  battle  for  the  title  video,  consigned  bythe  artist  to  the  Post-­War  and  Contemporary  Art  Sale  (it  sold  for  $84,788).  Within  theinstallation's  frame,  the  viewer  traverses  disparate  geographies,  clashing  chronologies,and  competing  object  economies,  yet  the  urgencies  of  the  situation  being  documentedare  constantly  neutralized  by  a  perfected  aesthetic  of  distance,  detachment,  and  tosome  extent  ambivalence.  

The  high-­definition  video  camera,  a  constant  companion  on  the  artist's  transcontinentalreconnaissance  mission,  captures  the  pristine  and  seemingly  uninhabited  salons  andliving  rooms  of  the  Euro-­American  elite,  then  courses  through  auction  rooms,photography  studios,  conservation  facilities,  warehouses,  and  cargo-­ship  holds,  beforeexploring  the  contours,  crevices,  and  cavernous  chambers  of  Chandigarh's  modernistbuildings,  known  across  the  world  as  achievements  of  that  20th-­century  architecturegiant,  Le  Corbusier.  The  north-­Indian  city,  planned  and  constructed  from  scratch  in  the1950s  and  60s  to  serve  as  a  capital  for  the  states  of  Punjab  and  Haryana,  is  theshared  legacy  of  Corb  (and  company  –  Pierre  Jeanneret,  Jane  Drew,  and  Maxwell  Fry)and  Jawaharlal  Nehru,  India's  first  prime  minister.  An  avowed  modernist,  Nehrucommissioned  the  city  to  affirm  and  embody  his  vision  of  a  forward-­looking,  secular,and  modern  new  nation,  grappling  with  the  trauma  of  Partition,  the  challenges  ofeconomic  ruin,  glaring  rural-­urban  disparities,  and  a  severe  lack  of  infrastructure  andindustry.  

Every  aspect  of  the  new  city  echoed  the  ideals  of  the  architects  and  theircommissioner,  from  its  key  organizing  principle  (the  indefatigable  modernist  grid)  to  thelayout  and  design  of  its  major  public  buildings  (High  Court,  Legislative  Assembly,Secretariat,  Panjab  University,  and  Government  Museum  and  Art  Gallery)  and  theirfurnishings.  Desks,  chairs,  coffee  tables,  sofas,  and  cabinets  were  fabricated  enmasse,  employing  the  designs  of  Corbusier's  cousin  Pierre  Jeanneret,  his  principalcollaborator  on  Chandigarh,  who  remained  in  the  city  serving  as  its  chief  architect  formuch  of  his  life.  The  unidentified  yet  easily  discernible  spaces  that  open  Siegel's  videoare  impeccably  appointed  with  carefully  picked  specimens  from  this  prolific  production.Chairs  dominate  this  global  survey  of  Jeanneret's  displaced  furniture,  running  thegamut  from  the  "Senate"  variety  with  leather  upholstery  to  the  more  modest  classroom,conference  room,  and  library  chairs  with  cane  seats  and  backs.  In  each  of  thesespotless  rooms,  the  camera  pans  and  lingers  on  the  individual  design  objects,  dotingon  their  economy  of  form  and  material  while  revealing  subtle  traces  of  their  past  livesand  locations  (painted  inventory  numbers  remain  visible  on  their  freshly  polishedsurfaces).  

And  thus  the  journey  begins,  a  voyage-­in-­reverse,  that  is.  Auctioneers  accept  bidsrunning  into  thousands  of  dollars,  in-­house  photographers  scramble  to  make  eachfurniture  object  appear  unique  and  desirable,  restorers  work  their  magic  on  tornupholstery,  broken  legs,  and  damaged  wicker.  Shots  of  crowded  warehouses  andshipping  containers  lead  us  right  back  to  the  source  –  the  provenance  –  of  thesemobile  commodities.  Siegel  captures  Chandigarh's  concrete  edifices  and  their  interiorsexquisitely:  the  dull  winter  sun,  the  stray  monkeys,  the  pools  of  water  reflecting  andsoftening  the  architecture's  hard  edges,  and  indeed,  the  crowded  offices  where  thesame  chairs  and  tables  are  subject  to  continuous  use,  wear,  and  tear.  Over  the  years,hundreds  have  been  condemned  to  rooftops  and  storage  closets,  where  they  await  a

purge  under  suitable  protocols.  Replacing  them  piece  by  piece  are  modular

workstations  and  rotating  office  chairs,  today  enjoying  the  kind  of  universal  proliferation

that  modernist  design  and  architecture  never  did  achieve.  What  is  most  striking  is  the

coexistence  of  these  period-­specific  solutions,  heightened  by  the  camera's  extended

deliberation.  No  one  seems  concerned  with  stylistic  incongruities  or,  more  significantly,

the  depletion  and  slow  pilferage  of  a  unique  legacy.  Functionality,  comfort,  affordability,

and  ease  of  maintenance  are  the  order  of  the  day.  

What,  then,  is  Siegel  trying  to  convey?  Are  we  to  be  surprised  that  the  all-­subsuming

art  market  continues  to  operate  through  the  nefarious  activities  of  dealers  and

suppliers  who  never  fail  to  exploit  weaknesses  and  leaks  in  the  system?  Or  does  she

rehearse  the  trope  of  inherent  asymmetry  in  concepts  of  heritage,  cultural  patrimony,

and  associated  value,  between  modernism's  intellectual  homeland  and  the  peripheries

where  its  productions  have  remained  empty  signifiers?  The  insertion  of  her  own  work

into  the  auction  house  –  wedged  between  Jasper  Johns  and  Valie  Export  –  speaks  of

the  kind  of  self-­reflexive  strategy  spawned  by  80s  institutional  critique,  whose  potential,

resting  in  the  gesture's  immanence,  may  be  altogether  exhausted  in  2014.  For  an

incre-­dibly  sleek,  seductive,  and  highly  watchable  work,  Provenance  doesn't  quitecome  clean  about  what  is  at  stake.  

Perhaps  Corb's  anthropomorphic  metaphors  offer  us  something:  if  Chandigarh  was

designed  with  a  head  (the  government  and  judicial  headquarters),  a  heart  (the  central

commercial  district),  and  lungs  (the  network  of  green  spaces  running  through),  is  the

scavenging  of  its  inner  flesh  and  tissue  symptomatic  of  a  collapsed  body,  a  lifeless

organism?  Looking  beyond  the  images  of  dilapidation  and  decrepitude,  we  know  the

contemporary  city  endures,  supported  by  its  post-­modern  prostheses  and  an  unshaken

confidence  in  its  ability  to  draw  India's  one  percent  with  the  promise  of  wide  roads,

regulated  traffic,  and  abundant  greenery  (Chandigarh  consistently  tops  rankings  of  per

capita  income,  living  standards,  and  cleanliness  levels  in  the  country).  The  concentric

logic  of  Siegel's  installation  parallels  the  dialectic  between  postcolonial  modernization

and  a  home-­grown  modernism,  set  in  motion  by  the  formidable  Nehru-­Corb  duo.  This

dialectic  plays  itself  out  repeatedly,  its  multiple  syntheses  continually  reaffirming  and

servicing  the  demands  of  a  global  elite.

–  Rattanamol  Singh  Johal

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