“FedEx”
“Travel Pictures”
Travel Pictures [Tschaikowskistrasse 17 in multiple exposures* (LAXFRATHF/TXLCPHSEALAX) March 27–April 3, 2006] *Contax G-2, L-3 Communications eXaminer 3DX 6000, and InVision Technologies CTX 5000, 2006/2008
Two bodies of work are displayed in the same exhibition space. Set up at several points across the room are three-dimensional works from the FedEx series. They consist of cardboard boxes of the internationally known transportation company, and partially broken glass cases placed on top of each box. Upon closer inspection, one understands that the glass cases were built to fit exactly into the FedEx boxes, and as a matter of fact, the artist used the company's boxes and service to ship empty glass cases to museums and galleries around the world. Displayed on the wall is a series with the title "Travel Pictures." This is a set of photographs from 2006 of the closed and abandoned Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in former East Berlin. The artist carried the unprocessed photographic film through the baggage check at the airport, where it was exposed to X-rays. The results can be seen in this exhibition. These works inspire the viewer to think about the relationships between containers and things that are supposed to be carried in them, and between photographic film and the subjects that are supposed to be captured on it. Both of them show evidence and traces of having traveled around the world, while at once evoking the question how their meanings and values as works of art have been established through this very process of traveling.
Walead BESHTY
- Born 1976 in London, UK
- Based in Los Angeles, USA
Photo: James Van Alden
Walead Beshty is known for work that presents, in a simple manner, the reality that the transmission of information and the transportation of things, which seem to occur instantaneously, are in fact carried out within the confines of many industries and depend on the physical labor of a great many people. Travel Pictures involved Beshty developing and printing photographic film with damage and discoloration from exposure to X-ray scanners when passing through airport baggage inspection. With the FedEx glass works, he shipped thin glass boxes cut to the size of FedEx standard shipping boxes around the world, and exhibited those boxes in the form took after becoming cracked all over through the process of transportation by cargo handlers. Beshty is often described as a photographer, but his practice has a wide scope, and he also works as a writer and curates exhibitions. In 2018, he organized the Picture Industry exhibition in France and edited its catalogue, which amounted to a monumental publication of over 800 pages.
Selected Works & Awards
| 2015 | 56th Venice Biennial, All the World’s Futures, Venice, Italy |
| 2014 | A Partial Disassembling of an Invention, Without a Future: Helter Skelter and Random Notes in Which the Pulleys and Cogwheels Are Lying Around at Random All Over the Workbench (solo), Barbican Centre, London, UK |
| 2013 | Fair Use (solo), the Power Station, Dallas, USA |
| 2011 | Securities and Exchanges (solo), Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China |
| 2011 | A Diagram of Forces (solo), Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden |
Map
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art Gallery (8F)
Address
1-13-2 Higashisakura,Higashi-ku, Nagoya
461-8525 JAPAN
Open
(Fri -20:00)
Admission until
30 minutes
before closing
Closed
Barrier free
Access
・5 minutes on foot from Sakae-Machi Station on the Meitetsu Seto Line.