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The Goods: A Talk by Artist Maeve Brennan

Maeve Brennan, The Goods, 2018. Courtesy of the artist, and Christos Tsirogiannis. © Maeve Brennan

Mar 3, 2021
4:30pm

Haverford, PA, USA
CANTOR FITGERZALD GALLERY, ONLINE

Maeve Brennan, The Goods, 2018. Courtesy of the artist, and Christos Tsirogiannis. © Maeve Brennan

As part of Notes for Tomorrow at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, artist Maeve Brennan presents her practice and the artwork in the exhibition, The Goods.

The Goods was selected by Curatorial Intensive Alumna, Giulia Colletti. Colletti writes:

"The Goods is part of an ongoing series of billboards by Maeve Brennan, produced in collaboration with the forensic archaeologist Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis. The series draw from Tsirogiannis’ digital archive of over 30,000 images depicting more than 100,000 illicitly traded antique objects. The images give a sense of the largely invisible economy of the illegal antiques market, which is one of the most profitable, after weapons and drug trafficking. Tsirogiannis uses this archive to identify antiquities of potentially illicit origin in museums, collections, commercial galleries, and auction houses by comparing the objects to images from the confiscated archives of three convicted dealers. As a result of his work, the objects are often seized and repatriated to their country of origin.
 
Each billboard in the exhibition features an artifact identified by Tsirogiannis as illicitly traded and discovered in various locations, including Frieze Masters, London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the private collection of the New York billionaire Michael Steinhardt. Embracing one of art theorist Ariella Azoulay’s most poignant definitions, The Goods seems to enact the practice of “potential history,” a rehearsal in non-imperial critical thinking not intended to “mend the worlds after violence but rewind[s] to the moment before the violence [of looting] occurred and [setting] off from there.” 
 
At a moment when there is increasing awareness of the relationships between colonialism and the histories of museum collections, Brennan sheds light on forms of exile and repatriation that affect dispossessed objects as much as the communities they belong to."
 

This exhibition is on view from February 15-April 11, 2021. To learn more about the exhibition and programs at Cantor Fitgerzald Gallery click here.


Notes for Tomorrow features artworks selected by alumni of the Curatorial Intensive from around the world to reflect on a new global reality ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the tour launches in a cultural moment of transition, this exhibition is a source of inspiration from the recent past and provides guiding perspectives for the future. Notes for Tomorrow address art’s potential in the construction of collective memory in a global era. We learn the importance of sustaining and sharing different forms of knowledge, prompting us to re-imagine our conceptions of the future. In addition to videos, murals, and photographs being installed at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, artworks will be shared online and installed outdoors and in community spaces across the Haverford College campus.

Presenter
Maeve Brennan

Maeve Brennan is an artist and filmmaker based in London.