Here, Parkett showcases the work of four artists whose work foregrounds the distance between the observer and the thing observed. The observer in question may be simultaneously the artist and the viewer, and the observations may concern the world, the society or the self--but in each case, these artists subvert the laws of objectivity versus subjectivity, conceptualism versus realism, the verbal versus the visual. Cultural nomads or archaeologists of information, Lothar Baumgarten's installations, language and other systems of categorization are turned inside out, revealing the anxieties such nomenclature is designed to suppress. For Tiravanija, however, the medium of exchange is not words but consumables, whose traces tell us who we are. In the epic everyday spaces of Andreas Gursky's photographic spaces, as much as in the extraterrestrial content of Vija Celmins' pictures, the universal and the mundane are held in taut suspension, resulting in images that remain simultaneously intimate and enigmatic. Other features of this special issue include Lynne Cooke on "Micromegas," Alexandre Melo on peripheries, Jason Simon on Mark Dion and more.
