Events of this year have brought the world to a halt, affecting global commerce and security, putting our own mortality in sharp focus, and heightening existing inequities, injustices, and political tensions. In this time, we ask: What is the role of art and museums?
I’m Yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times celebrates the power of experiencing art in person. This exhibition, which borrows its title from a Henry Taylor painting in the ICA collection, is conceived as an invitation to our visitors to create a personal connection with works of art. Collaboratively and virtually organized in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest, i’m yours is presented within a dramatic, raw architectural space as a series of small galleries, each offering a different artistic perspective to emphasize that the stories museums may tell through art are never fixed but always in process. Comprising unique encounters with new acquisitions and iconic works from the ICA’s collection, the exhibition’s groupings, or scenes, address a range of topics, including ideas of home and history, social and material transformation, and frames of identity in portraiture and sculpture.
Including works by Chantal Joffe, Henry Taylor, Kader Attia, Cindy Sherman, Firelei Báez, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Marlene Dumas, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Rania Matar, and Rineke Dijkstra, among others, I’m Yours sparks wonder, encourages questions, challenges assumptions, and provides a space for reflection.
