Claire Fontaine: Tears

Claire Fontaine’s installation Tears comprises nine neon signs suspended from the lobby ceiling at The Jewish Museum, creating a wavelike color field above the spectator.

Claire Fontaine’s art work addresses the ethical crises affecting society.

It explores ideas and representations of power, freedom, and identity, often undermining or destabilizing these concepts. She uses found materials, borrowed text, images appropriated from other artists, and commercial or industrial media to probe such issues and subvert their original contexts, offering a way to imagine change.

Fontaine’s practice is rooted in political activism, especially the collaborative protest movements of the late 1960s. Contemporary political theory provides the armature for her investigations; she especially values postcolonial perspectives, feminism, and neo-Marxism, with their focus on the politically and socially marginalized.

The installation Tears comprises nine neon signs suspended from the lobby ceiling at The Jewish Museum. In each, the phrase “isle of tears” is written in a different language: French, Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Greek, Italian, German, Spanish, and English. These were the languages most commonly spoken at the Ellis Island immigration station by the people who came to America through its doors—nearly sixteen million between 1892 and 1914.

The neon lights, in lambent blue and green hues, create a wavelike colour field above the spectator. Located in the lobby—the liminal space between the outside world and the realm of art—they mark a point of transition for the visitor. With their multilingual voices they serve as surrogates for the millions of poor immigrants who landed at Ellis Island filled with hope and trepidation.

until April 20, 2014
Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Claire Fontaine
The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Avenue,  New York, NY

Claire Fontaine: Tears

Claire Fontaine’s installation Tears comprises nine neon signs suspended from the lobby ceiling at The Jewish Museum, creating a wavelike color field above the spectator.

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