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Samson Young: Silver Moon or Golden Star, Which Will You Buy Of Me?
September 18, 2019 - December 15, 2019
FreeIn his first U.S. museum exhibition, Samson Young premieres a trilogy of animated music videos that explore varying concepts of social progress and utopia.
Loosely taking the idealism displayed at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago as a point of departure, this multimedia exhibition asks how do people adapt to societal changes that they have little control over. For Young, “progress” as it was defined in the 1933 fair’s subtitle “A Century of Progress” represents a specific variant of aspirational thinking. From cars to shopping malls and houses designed for the future to political change, progressive thinking has had contrasting consequences as it made its impact felt across the globe in the decades that followed.
The exhibition is the culmination of a year-long research project undertaken by the artist that commenced during a residency co-sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum and Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. The exhibition showcases a trilogy of music videos—The Highway is Like a Lion’s Mouth, Da Da Company, and the new Houses of Tomorrow—that Young describes as a “song cycle.” Additionally, the exhibition includes archival materials related to the 1933 World’s Fair and “sound drawings” by the artist.