Torkwase Dyson at the 2024 Whitney Biennial: Movement, Presence, and Liberation

This new film centers on Torkwase Dyson's large-scale sculpture Liquid Shadows, Solid Dreams (A Monastic Playground), the Whitney Museum's inaugural Hyundai Terrace Commission for site-specific projects. Installed outdoors on the museum's fifth-floor terrace as part of the 2024 Whitney Biennial, this work is sited within view of New York's Hudson River, witnessing and responding to different conditions of light, sound, and space. Here, Dyson sheds light on her approach to creating the sculpture and discusses its engagement with the city's interconnected ecological, infrastructural, and social histories. "I hope that people respond to the work based on their own conditions of improvisation, interiority, play, and mindfulness," she says in her narration of the film, adding that her improvisations in the physical making of this work are "geared toward a freedom of self."
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To learn more about this exhibition, visit: www.pacegaller...
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[@herahagstoz6934]

I don’t like new age brutalism. I feel like it’s lost its spiritual meaning in the modern world. It seems too perfect whereas megalithic structures like Stonehenge and the underground temples in Malta or Anatolia/Turkey still embody the deep mysteries of humanity connected to natural cycles. I understand this attempt here but having it in conjunction with even larger mundane creations like the people eating buildings, it seems more like window dressing on a horror instead of a human space on the earth that connects to the infinity. These works cannot possibly stand the test of time and will be gone as soon as whomever owns the land there tires of the current structures. They live on top of a scaffolding of cement and metal that has no connection to the original land and cannot hope to have any real connection to those who work or walk in their vicinity.
The intention is absolutely pure and I understand the symbolism and talent behind such structures. I just personally think we need more of the permanency that the older creations are still able to teach us. Beauty and timelessness rarely work together and when they do it has an awe some effect on the psyche of everyone who experiences it. I’d rather see works like this grounded and given a chance at permanence. You should be able to feel the chance for your shadow to fall into the same space as a future offspring who likewise experiences the same in the reverse. Otherwise it is difficult for people to relate.
I think it would be interesting to set climate markers in certain spaces and depending on their visibility to us, or their disappearance, used as bellwethers to physically see the changes humanity has caused. Sort of how the sands of the world’s deserts conceal and reveal our attempts at transcendence. A relatable thermometer humanity can watch and care for. Otherwise it becomes too abstract and uncontrollable for our species to manage. Sort of like the giant sun dials of old, but with the intention to track climate instead of celestial bodies.

[@Alexandra-qc5wp]

Please dont use me. I work hard working large scale. Subtractive use my moniker.