Henry Taylor: Nothing Change, Nothing Strange
A couple of days before it closed, I made it to see Henry Taylor’s show, “Nothing Change, Nothing Strange” at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. I’m really glad that I managed to make it there because this show was one to get pleasantly lost in, material-wise. The blended use of recycled construction materials and newer pieces, arranged along the entirety of the long second floor space, brought to mind being in an abandoned warehouse where someone took whatever was around them to craft a narrative from that was adamantly site-specific. The space was used to it’s max from floor to ceiling, front to back.
I didn’t know much the conceptual aspects of the exhibit before going to see it. I only saw a few photos of the show on the Fabric Workshop’s website and knew of Taylor’s work from seeing it online, I have yet to see any of his paintings in person. If I can, I’ll try to get up to the Whitney to see his show, B-Side. In the meantime, “Nothing Change, Nothing Strange” was, to me, an exciting introduction to his work. I might be projecting a little because of my own thing for construction materials, but I got the feeling that Taylor was like a kid in a candy shop with the materials he was able to access from RAIR and the opportunity of being artist-in-residence at FWM. Here, he was able to use two huge, loosely hung horizontal canvases which serve as landscape/seascape vistas, seeming to extend the physical space outward on both sides.
All sorts of materials were used as well: wood, fabric, drop cloths and two of my favorite parts, a couple of bundles of compressed 5 gallon paint buckets and various plastics, vinyl, and fabric. The neon light tartan grid atop one of those bundles was another favorite piece. Tartan fabrics, among others, were dispersed throughout the installation and meant to reference the Scots who participated heavily in the slave trade. Fabric and things being held together in complicated ways was a visual theme I noticed throughout the show. I loved the phrase, “ Most Blacks Got Suga”, etched onto what looked like broken pieces of granite countertops in the central, boat-like structure and used on blocks of cotton arranged on the wall near the beginning of the installation. To me, it read like Black people inherently have something special about them or it meant that we have/had something that was valued, coveted and was to be taken.
I walked through “Nothing Change, Nothing Strange” a couple of times and lingered more on certain pieces each time. I was overwhelmed with the variety and types of materials that were used. I also enjoyed that nothing was pristine here; everything had it’s original patina of dirt, mud, and whatever else attached to it. The longer I stayed with the work, the more I began to tease out some of the underlying issues that Taylor was trying to connect us to. Taylor’s installation worked on the material level and beyond because he tackled some very complex ideas related to issues of race, slavery, commerce and identity and managed to make a very abstract installation have huge meanings while leaving this viewer with more questions, as well. Something that strong abstract work can do well when done right.
TM