Traces of Care

Take care. These two simple words have gained profound significance since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The act of caring and being cared for is fundamental to human existence. Traces of Care questions how care is embodied and given form in the work of three artists: Janine Antoni, Hannah Levy, and Hannah Wilke. Centering human intimacy and interdependence, the exhibition urges us to ask: How do we care? Who cares? Who do we care for? What happens when there is a lack of care?

Borrowing from Walter Benjamin’s well-known aphorism, “to live is to leave traces,” Traces of Care aims to make visible the invisible traces of care and support structures that surround us, whether those be our own bodies, the individuals who surround us, or our spaces and objects. The exhibition thematically considers the affective qualities of materials that serve as body proxy while interrogating the different ways the body is disciplined. The works mediate our interactions with the body as objects that replace, support, or represent it.

Antoni, Levy, and Wilke, each from a different generation, offer a range of diverse perspectives on memory, the body, vulnerability, illness, and labor that challenge and disrupt our expectations of resilience and distress and shine a light on our own fragility and the care structures that are vital in our society.

INSTALLATION VIEWS