Curated by Tannaz Farsi and Simone Ciglia
Featuring: Noor Abuarafeh | Shadi Harouni | Laura Larson | MoRE | Zora Murff | Gala Porras-Kim | Wendy Red Star | Marco Scotini | Service Works | Stephanie Syjuco

Opening Event – Saturday, January 17
Curator Walkthrough: 4:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Reception: 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

The “archival impulse,” an essay by Hal Foster, animated a significant trend in contemporary art since the early 2000s. This opened an unorthodox use of the archive through a multiplicity of methodological and aesthetic strategies which included critiquing and dismantling the alleged neutrality of the institution by highlighting its gaps, absences, and biases; expanding representation to include suppressed and peripheral histories; and complicating the construction of the archive through fiction and speculation.

Produced by the Center for Art Research at the University of Oregon, The Whisperers considers experimental practices imformed by the archive in recent contemporary art. The featured works by national and international artists challenge the conventions of the archive by reanimating exclusionary histories defined by patriarchy or colonial oppression, addressing forms of disobedience and resistance, and incorporating the refused and unrealized.

This exhibition is made possible by the University of Oregon Department of Art’s Center for Art Research and the Ford Family Foundation.