BARBARA BENISH

Barbara Benish insinuates her sense of ethnographically informed space through a combination of sound and images derived from the Western historical and cultural past, transforming the ethos of spacial orientation into contemporary voice".

Zdenka Gabalová, curator, P.S.1 Museum (now MoMA), New York City

For the exhibition "Sleepless Nights" at P.S.1 (1993), I was assigned one of the few rooms in the museum that still held the original chalkboard from the days when the building was part of New Yorks Public School system. Working on-site, I drew, over the course of many days, a collaged depiction of images from western art history depicting scenes of the Apocalypse. Inspired by Goya, Cranach, Durer and others, the scenes of destruction and grotesque revelations, tells more about who we are as humans than about the world itself. The context of the former classroom raises questions about our educational systems, and who is writing history. An original sound piece played in the room, which also contained a floor piece by Rirkrit Tiravanija, which doubly activated the space with layered angst and meaning. 

This drawing was recreated in my studio in Czech Republic in 2000, reflecting the site of our old flour mill. 

 4 meters, 6.5 cm x 1 meter, 26 cm. 5 removable panels in a welded frame.