Intro
Jordan Wolfson: untitled false document
Swiss Institute, New York
10 September 10–25 October 2008
Content
In an existentialist extension of Surrealist legacies, Jordan Wolfson’s newly-commissioned 'untitled false document' was the artist’s first New York solo exhibition ever. The show manifested as a film project subtly encompassing the entire exhibition space through architectural interventions leading up to the titular film. Featuring minimalist institutional seating along the walls of the first space, double doors from the artist’s apartment, a cinder block obstacle in the space, and a dimly lit room dedicated to the film, 'untitled false document'was a sparse project rife with possibility.
The film, which depicted a woman on a boat presenting pictures of drawn still-lifes on paper that she would then cast off into the water, eventually zoomed out to reveal itself as a film being watched on the artist’s television. Overlaid with a text spoken by Apple’s text-to-speech program musing on the philosophical complexities of authorship, the absurd film informed the seating arrangement of the first room, which forced viewers into moments of solitude in its overwhelming emptiness.
