[News] In Whitney Biennial Artwork, a Message Reveals Itself: ‘Free Palestine’

[Anti-Imperialist News]

nytimes.com
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/arts/design/whitney-biennial-art-palestinians-message-gaza.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ck0.j2RE.w8FyejBPFZ5s&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare>
In Whitney Biennial Artwork, a Message Reveals Itself: ‘Free Palestine’

By Zachary Small <https://www.nytimes.com/by/zachary-small> - March 14, 2024
------------------------------

Museum curators said they had been unaware that the artist Demian
DinéYazhi’ included the message through the flickering letters of their
neon installation.
[image: Three sentences with cursive neon letters attached to frames point
toward windows at the Whitney Museum.]
Demian DinéYazhi’ created an installation titled “we must stop imagining
apocalypse/genocide + we must imagine liberation.” On Wednesday, museum
officials said they were unaware that some tiny blinking neon letters also
spelled out the message “Free Palestine.”Credit...Charlie Rubin for The New
York Times

March 14, 2024Updated 3:03 p.m. ET

Throughout its history, the Whitney Biennial has often reflected the heated
discourse of the art world, welcoming provocative
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/arts/design/dana-schutz-emmett-till-painting-protests.html>
work
<https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/arts/design/racially-themed-work-stirs-conflict-at-whitney-biennial.html>
that might ruffle
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/arts/whitney-warren-kanders-resigns.html>
feathers
<https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/05/arts/at-the-whitney-a-biennial-with-a-social-conscience.html>.
But museum officials and curators said they were taken by surprise by a
message that revealed itself in the flickering lights of a neon
installation.

On Wednesday evening the Whitney Museum of American Art confirmed that an
artwork by the Indigenous artist and activist Demian DinéYazhi’
<https://www.queer-art.org/demian-dineyazhi> had blinking lights that
slowly spelled out the phrase “Free Palestine.”

The artwork originated with poetry written before the outbreak of the
Israel-Hamas war and bears the title, “we must stop imaging
apocalypse/genocide + we must imagine liberation.” It was inspired by
Indigenous resistance movements and the Diné activist Klee Benally
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/07/us/klee-benally-dead.html#:~:text=He%20helped%20found%20a%20punk,Native%20American%20and%20environmental%20causes.>,
who died in December and was a friend of the artist.
[image: An exterior of the museum shows, through the glass windows, the
artwork illuminated in such a way that only a few letters on each panel are
lit.]
At times the neon lights spell out the words “Free Palestine.”Credit...Karsten
Moran for The New York Times

“It is about Indigenous resistance and opposition to forms of settler
colonialism,” DinéYazhi' said in an interview, referring to a concept
rooted in academia
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/arts/what-is-settler-colonialism.html>
and studies of societies where one population displaces and dominates
another.

Officials at the museum, including the exhibition’s curators, said that
they had not been aware of the message, which most viewers missed at first.
The artwork arrived shortly before the exhibition’s installation; curators
noticed the flickering lights but thought they were supposed to draw a
viewer’s attention to words like “genocide” and “liberation.”

Officials at the museum, when asked earlier this week about the title of
the work and whether it referred to Gaza, initially said that the piece had
been conceived before the current conflict and was a reflection on
Indigenous resistance movements. They later said that they had not known
about the message, which was added when the work was fabricated in the
fall, but that the message would not have affected their decision to
display the art.

Image
[image: Red neon letters spell phrases and words including “must stop” and
“fascist” and “capitalist hierarchies.”]
The artist said the work was inspired by Indigenous resistance movements
and the Diné activist Klee Benally,Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York
Times

Annie Armstrong, a writer for the publication Artnet News, noted the “Free
Palestine” message in an article
<https://news.artnet.com/art-world/a-big-surprise-at-the-whitney-biennial-opening-no-protests-2452030>
about the exhibition yesterday.

“The museum did not know of this subtle detail when the work was
installed,” said Angela Montefinise, chief communications and content
officer, who added that there were no plans to remove or change the
artwork. “The Biennial has long been a place where contemporary artists
address timely matters, and the Whitney is committed to being a space for
artists’ conversations.”

Museums around the country have struggled to respond to the Israel-Hamas
war as artists, employees, trustees and the public scrutinize their
statements on the conflict. And within the culture industry, there has been
a wave of resignations
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/arts/design/artforum-israel-hamas-war.html#:~:text=The%20magazine's%20first%20issue%20since,about%20the%20Israel%2DHamas%20war.>,
boycotts
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/arts/design/artforum-boycott-goldin-eisenman.html>
and firings
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/arts/artforum-editor-fired-david-velasco-palestine-gaza.html>
that have come with addressing the war.

DinéYazhi’ said the flickering message aligned with the deeper meaning of
their artwork. “The piece in its final form and as it currently exists
today is a response to being situated within settler colonial
institutions,” the artist said.
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