Laurel Nakadate: Only the Lonely

Jan 23–Aug 15, 2011

MoMA PS1

Installation view of Laurel Nakadate: Only the Lonely at MoMA PS1, January 23–August 15, 2011. Photo: Matthew Septimus

Laurel Nakadate is known for her works in video, photography, and feature-length film. This is Nakadate's first large-scale museum exhibition and will feature works made over the last ten years in all three media, including her early video works, in which she was invited into the homes of anonymous men to dance, pose, or even play dead in their kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms.

Also included will be Good Morning, Sunshine (2009), a more recent work in which Nakadate enters the bedrooms of young women, wakes them, and instructs each to strip down to their underwear for the camera. Nakadate's two features, Stay the Same Never Change (2009) and The Wolf Knife (2010) mine similar terrain-the power and fragility of the adolescent female body. The exhibition will also be the premiere of Nakadate's latest photographic series, 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears, currently in progress. These photographs document a year-long performance that began on January 1, 2010, in which the artist documented, and continues to document herself before, during, and after weeping each day.

The exhibition brings together bodies of work that touch on voyeurism, loneliness, the manipulative power of the camera, and the urge to connect with others, through, within, and apart from technology and the media.

Laurel Nakadate: Only the Lonely is organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator at Large at The Museum of Modern Art.

The exhibition is made possible by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation. Generous support is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

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