The Met Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
September 22, 2022 – January 3, 2023
Past/Present/Future is the culminating exhibition to Thomas J. Watson Library's grant project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which aimed to assess and expand the library's collection of underrepresented heritage groups, especially Indigenous American, Latinx, Hispanic American, Asian American, and Pacific Islander artists. While it is impossible to apply a single definition or category to all the acquired titles, many explore a suspension or intervention of temporality, bound together by shared themes of colonialism, land sovereignty, reclamation, and reconciliation. Thus, the titles selected here present artists whose work confronts the past, reconciles the present, and draws out new possibilities for the future of historically marginalized people in the United States. This selection also mirrors Watson Library's own endeavors to build a diverse body of perspectives and resources dedicated to the study of visual art by confronting what has been overlooked in the past, addressing it in our present moment, and mapping out a future where the collection better aligns with its values and purposes.
Shared Grounds
Thomas J. Watson Library resides in Manahatta of Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape diaspora and a place for gathering and trading for many diverse Native peoples. Today our site is better recognized by the name Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of New York City that has been notably claimed home by countless immigrants since the first Dutch settlement in 1664. In “Shared Grounds,” the library acknowledges its presence and participation in this history and in the continuing narrative of colonial settlement. Featuring works by Latinx, Hispanic American, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous artists, the publications in this section are united in their shared engagement with the land. Together they shed light on the overlapping histories and common experiences of the diverse communities that occupy the territories on which the United States exists. Using land as a concept, framework, or subject, these artists tackle issues of land use and sovereignty, the transformation of the landscape due to climate change, and movement and migration across physical and political borders to explore and challenge existing definitions of what it is to be American.
Text: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2022/past-present-future/visiting-guide
See the SHOP to purchase the Sandy Rodriguez : Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón