Art / GIF Reviews

Filthy Dreams’s GIF Review: Cathy Wilkes at MoMA PS1

Cathy Wilkes. Untitled. 2012. Gift of the Speyer Family Foundation and Mrs. Saidie A. May (by exchange). © 2017 Cathy Wilkes

Why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! I don’t know about you but have you noticed criticism is getting a little, well, shorter lately? Us too. As other publications are paring their pieces down to fewer and fewer words, we want to join in and push the boundaries even more. So we’re proud to introduce our newest series of GIF reviews.

Yes, you read that right-GIFs. And why not? We don’t know about you but GIFs have certainly replaced a lot of our day-to-day communication. Of course, we are heavily indebted to Dennis Cooper’s ongoing interest in the GIF as a literary form, which he’s perfected in his GIF novels like Zac’s Haunted House.

Our first GIF review focuses on Irish artist Cathy Wilkes’s current retrospective at MoMA PS1. Filling PS1’s third floor with mannequins, dirty bowls, old jam jars and other random household objects, as well as eschewing traditional exhibition design like labels and distinct objects in favor of a handout map, Wilkes’s show is, I’d argue, admirably inaccessible. Which makes it a perfect candidate for the first GIF review, so “read” on:

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