Entitled Platform 4:Type A, the show opens with a site-specific sculpture (Barrier) that makes a powerful political statement about the limits of security in the wake of 9/11. Barrier is an arrangement of concrete Jersey barriers outside the museum’s entrance, pointlessly redirecting foot traffic and posing an inconvenience that reminds us of how security measures have impinged on public spaces since 9/11.
The exhibit continues inside with Type A’s Insertions photography series, which the pair began in the summer of 2001. The large-scale chromogenic prints each feature one of the artists “inserting” himself into an urban streetscape, often only partially visible as if emerging from concealment or hiding in plain sight. 9/11 freighted the series’ early images with a darker, even sinister, subtext, which Type A probes in subsequent images from the series.
Andrew (originally a photographer) and Adams (originally a filmmaker) joined forces in 1998. They share a studio in Chelsea (NYC) and were the subject of a comprehensive monograph by Lisa D. Freiman, published this summer by Hatje Cantz. The author is the chair of contemporary art department at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). The IMA’s Virginia.B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, which opened in 2010, includes a site-specific installation by Type A called Team Building (Align).
Please note: The deCordova Museum will be closed through September 17 while the fall exhibits (including Platform 4:Type A) are installed. The Type A exhibit runs from September 18, 2010, through January 9, 2011.