2004-2005

Matthew Ritchie

Sue de Beer

Rico Gatson

2002-2003

National Dance Institute

Diller & Scofidio

Ellen Harvey

Lorna Simpson

2001-2002

töshöklabs

Larry Krone

Robert Lazzarini

Paul Pfeiffer

Kiki Smith

2000-2001

Vik Muniz

Glenn Ligon

Barbara Kruger

1999-2000

Fred Tomaselli

Ian and Crystal discuss Lorna Simpson's work.

Lorna Simpson

The first Artist + Youth: a Dialogue for the 2002-2003 Youth Insights year was held on November 9, 2002 with Lorna Simpson. Her work was displayed in Cameos and Appearances and Lorna Simpson, two exhibitions, one featuring photography the other featuring video, on view at the Whitney Museum od American Art.

This dialogue was different from past dialogues. Unfortunately, Lorna Simpson could not attend. Youth Insights therefore led a brief discussion about her work. After sharing thoughts about her art, there was music and dancing at our first What’s Up? at the Whitney: A Teen Night Out of the 2002-2003 Youth Insights year.

Lorna Simpson was born in Brooklyn. She attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City where she received her BFA. Later she went on to earn her MFA at the University of California in San Diego. The majority of her work is devoted to breaking down stereotypes, especially those concerned with the female figure, gender, and race. Although Lorna Simpson is young, she has already completed numerous projects and has been exhibited in many galleries.

Evie talking about Lorna Simpson's work.

She began her career working with documentary photography. However, her most popular medium is her photography with text, although recently her works are in film. Her early photo or text work (during the late 80’s and early 90’s) involved juxtapositions of black women and thought provoking text. This series of work deals with the societal portrayal of black women. The pieces are very open-minded and any conclusions of the work are entirely up to the viewer. Her recent work is centered more on the relationship between the viewer and the viewed.

RESPONSES/OPINIONS OF YOUTH INSIGHTS PARTICIPANTS:

Crystal: "This dialogue was very unique because the artist Lorna Simpson was not able to come. So, instead of doing a dialogue we had to do a presentation, which was okay with me. It released some of the pressure of asking questions that would provoke her to talk and I got an opportunity to simply present the information for the audience without trying to drag it out with "guiding" questions. It was fun doing this dialogue because it felt very free and we got the chance to make it what we wanted."

Erik: "Even though we didn't get to meet Lorna Simpson in person, this dialogue was a great experience. I was able to analyze an artist's body of work in great depth, and was surprised at the extent of which I enjoyed her art. The dialogue was also a growing experience for me, in terms of learning how to speak in front of a large audience. I was proud of being able to adapt to the last minute change in scenario (Ms. Simpson not being able to attend), even though the audience didn't seem too happy with this change."

Evie: "The Lorna Simpson Dialogue was a bit...different from our previous Artist and Youth dialogues. For starters, she didn't come. There was an emergency within her family so she was unable to come. The way that we usually structure the Artist + Youth dialogues is by having a panel of four Youth Insights sit in front of the conference room, with the artist on the other side. The panel asks the artists questions about their work (which would be projected onto an overhead) and they respond. Since the artist didn't come, we couldn't exactly do it this way because there would be no one to answer. So, instead we created a lecture and presentation of her work for the audience. Considering that we found out that Lorna Simpson would not be coming about five days before the dialogue, I think we pulled together a pretty good dialogue."

Ian: "The Lorna Simpson dialogue was interesting to me for two main reasons: 1) there was no artist so instead of a dialogue there was a Lorna Simpson presentation and 2) it was the very first dialogue in the program. Since this was the first dialogue, I thought that it was a little difficult because for me there was not a previous one for me to use as a model. In my opinion we were well prepared for the presentation, but the one thing I didn't take into consideration was the environment and how things were organized. The chair that I was in was right behind a speaker so that when I spoke I was surrounded by my own voice. Then the second thing that was not in my favor was that the mike was hand held, thus I had to shuffle through my index cards and hold a mike at the same time. And to add to that I was also nervous, so I didn't have the steadiest of hands. At the end of the presentation I was disappointed in myself because I felt confident and was well prepared to educate my audience and it only took one thing to make me lose my composure."

© 2003 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York