Exhibition
2021 Triennial: Soft Water Hard Stone
10/28/21-01/23/22
Conversations · Exhibition-Related
Mediated Bodies
Cover Image:
Jes Fan, Xenophoria, 2018–20 (still). HD video, color; 7:35 min. Courtesy the artist and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong
What happens when technology extends life beyond its biological limits? How can we complicate traditional and normative ideas of identity? And what happens when artists interrogate bodies—their own, those of others, and those they imagine—to envision new forms of living?
Join us for a panel discussion in conjunction with the 2021 Triennial, “Soft Water Hard Stone,” featuring participating artists Kate Cooper, Jes Fan, and Jeneen Frei Njootli, and moderated by Jeanette Bisschops, Curatorial Fellow at the New Museum.
About the Speakers
Jeanette Bisschops (b. 1984) is a curator and writer from Amsterdam based in New York. She is currently a Curatorial Fellow at the New Museum, New York. Between 2016 and 2019, Bisschops served as Curatorial Assistant for Time-Based Media at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and has curated multiple exhibitions as an independent curator. She holds a Master’s in Psychology from Maastricht University and a Master’s in Art History from the University of Amsterdam.
Kate Cooper (b. 1984) is an artist who lives and works between London and Amsterdam. Her upcoming exhibitions include presentations at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan, and the 5th Aichi Triennial, Japan. Recent solo exhibitions of her work include “Symptom Machine,” SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA, United States; “Screens Series: Kate Cooper,” New Museum, New York, United States (2020); “Symptom Machine,” Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019); and “Sensory Primer,” A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2019). Cooper’s work has been shown in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (2021); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2020); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2020); University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI, United States (2019); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2018); Artspace, Sydney, Australia (2018); the inaugural Riga Photography Biennial, Riga, Latvia (2018); and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, United States (2018). Cooper received the BEN Prize for Emerging Talent from B3 Biennial of the Moving Images in 2015 and the Schering Stiftung Art Award in 2014.
Jes Fan (b. 1990) is an artist who lives and works in Brooklyn. Recent solo exhibitions of his work include “Mother Is A Woman,” Empty Gallery, Hong Kong (2018), and “No Clearance in Niche,” Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, United States (2017). Fan’s work has been shown in group exhibitions at the 11th Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, United Kingdom (2021); Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, NY, United States (2020); the 22nd Sydney Biennial, Sydney, Australia (2020); the inaugural X Museum Triennial, Beijing, China (2020); Bangkok Center for Contemporary Art, Bangkok, Thailand (2019); Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019); Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2019); and Para Site, Hong Kong (2019). Fan received fellowships from the NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship in 2020, Socrates Sculpture Park in 2019, Jerome Foundation in 2019–21, and was awarded the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2017.
Jeneen Frei Njootli (Vuntut Gwitchin) (b. 1988) is an artist who lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Recent solo exhibitions of their work include “small mounds of flesh form,” Platform, Winnipeg, Canada (2020); “my auntie bought all her skidoos with bead money,” Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington, Canada (2019) and Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2018). Frei Njootli’s work has been shown in group exhibitions at the Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK, United States (2021); the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C. (2021); the inaugural Toronto Biennial, Toronto, Canada (2019); MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Canada (2019); Modern Fuel, Kingston, Canada (2019); La Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, France (2019); Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada (2019); the 4th Contemporary Native Art Biennial, Montreal, Canada (2018); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, United Kingdom (2018); Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, Canada (2018); and the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Toronto, Canada (2018). Frei Njootli received the William and Meredith Saunderson Prize for Emerging Canadian Artist from the Hnatyshyn Foundation in 2016. They are a co-creator of the ReMatriate Collective.
Accessibility
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Sponsors
New Museum Digital Initiatives are generously supported by Hermine and David B. Heller.
This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
We gratefully acknowledge the Bowery Council of the New Museum for its support of Education and Public Engagement Programs.
Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the Skadden, Arps Education Programs Fund; and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the New Museum.
Support for the 2021 Triennial, “Soft Water Hard Stone,” can be viewed here.
