Ydessa Hendeles’s ‘The Wedding’ is Inspired by Walker Evans Polaroids

NEW YORK—Behind a velvet curtain, there is a chapel-like experience at Andrea Rosen Gallery. The space has a cathedral ceiling, a skylight and wood plank rafters. Ydessa Hendeles has installed an architecturally significant 19th century birdhouse at the center of the gallery and surrounded it with Arts and Crafts-era benches that look like church pews.

“The Wedding (The Walker Evans Polaroid Project) With Roni Horn” was inspired by Walker Evans polaroids. The gallery challenged Hendeles to create an exhibit including at least one image from the series taken in 1975, the last year of Evans’s life.

The “curatorial composition” includes 83 Evans polaroids of architectural structures—houses and other dwellings—and components of “Bird,” a collection of photographs by Roni Horn made between 1998 and 2007, among other elements.

The installation is on view from Dec. 10, 2011 to February 4, 2012.

All photos by Arts Observer

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