Wayfinding: Phase 1

Chloë Bass: Wayfinding, presented by The Studio Museum in Harlem, is my first institutional solo exhibition. This monumental commission features twenty-four site-specific sculptures that gesture toward the structural and visual vernacular of public wayfinding signage. The exhibition begins with and revolves around three central questions, poetically penned by the artist and featured throughout the park in billboard form: How much of care is patience? How much of life is coping? How much of love is attention?

Through a combination of text and archival images, the sculptures activate an eloquent exploration of language, both visual and written, encouraging moments of private reflection in public space. The exhibition is accompanied by an audio guide: an essayistic recording sourced from original writing, Yelp reviews, reports from the National Institutes for Health, and landscape design textbooks. The audio guide is read by me, Alicia Grullón, and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, and was produced by Dave Ruder.

Wayfinding is a sub-project of Obligation to Others Holds Me in My Place, a study of intimacy at the scale of the immediate family.

Press

“This Way to Chloë Bass’ Outdoor Art Show,” by Brian Boucher, The New York Times, September 2020.

“‘Language Like A Pickaxe’: An Interview with Chloë Bass,” by Emily Raboteau, The New York Review, August 2020.

Wayfinding featured in WNYC’s All Of It with Allison Stewart, August 2020.

Wayfinding reviewed in Artforum by Johanna Fateman, July 2020. (PDF)

Wayfinding featured in “The July Culture Lover’s Guide,” Harper’s Bazaar, July 2020.

Wayfinding: A Conversation with Chloë Bass,” by Helen HY Kim, Asterix Journal, June 2020

Box Burners: Wayfinding in Harlem,” AllArts, January 2020. (Watch below.)