Overview

Taryn Simon (*1975) is an American artist whose works combine photography, text, and graphic design. Her practice involves extensive research, in projects guided by an interest in systems of categorization and classification. In Contraband, 1,075 photographs were taken at both the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Site and the U.S. Postal Service International Mail Facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York. From November 16, 2009, through November 20th, 2009, Taryn Simon remained on site and continuously photographed items detained or seized from passengers and express mail entering the United States from abroad. The list of items include: pork, syringes, Botox, GBL date rape drug, heroin, imitation Lipitor, Ketamine tranquillizers, Lidocaine, Lorazepam, locust tree seed, ginger root, deer tongues, cow urine, Cohiba cigars, Egyptian cigarettes.

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9783775739719

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For Contraband (2010), Simon spent a working week at John F. Kennedy International Airport, making over a thousand photographs of items that had been seized by customs officials, from dead animals and exotic fruit to a parade of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and luxury items...The project was systematic at the same time that it revealed the impossibility of systematic accounts of human experience: The more detail Simon supplied, the more the observer became aware of how many more details could be piled on.--Teju Cole -The New York Times -

"For Contraband (2010), Simon spent a working week at John F. Kennedy International Airport, making over a thousand photographs of items that had been seized by customs officials, from dead animals and exotic fruit to a parade of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and luxury items...The project was systematic at the same time that it revealed the impossibility of systematic accounts of human experience: The more detail Simon supplied, the more the observer became aware of how many more details could be piled on.--Teju Cole ""The New York Times"""

For </i>Contraband (2010), Simon spent a working week at John F. Kennedy International Airport, making over a thousand photographs of items that had been seized by customs officials, from dead animals and exotic fruit to a parade of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and luxury items...The project was systematic at the same time that it revealed the impossibility of systematic accounts of human experience: The more detail Simon supplied, the more the observer became aware of how many more details could be piled on.--Teju Cole The New York Times

Author Information

Hans Ulrich Obrist is an art curator, critic and historian. He is the Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London.

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