The future of popular images is uncertain. That’s the thesis of the new exhibition, Theories on Forgetting, on view at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills through August 21. Images of code deterioration (or bit rot), 3D prints of ancient friezes, and artificially patinated road signs, by artists Mark Flood, Oliver Laric, and Ed Ruscha (respectively) address the evolution and degradation of cultural symbols. Douglas Gordon takes on the cycle of fame directly by using one of Andy Warhol’s many portraits of Jacqueline Kennedy. Warhol appropriated the images of Kennedy from news footage and here Gordon uses a Warhol to create a burned print with a mirror effect. For a moment, the viewer sees bits of him or herself in this version of Jackie. Exhibition programmer Aaron Moulton, who curated the show, says there is plenty of referential work here. “The artist takes the baton from Warhol, then passes it along, like the telephone game.” The notion that we are consuming ourselves is hard to miss.

Viewers must also confront the legacy of time in this show, whether they see it in mirror images of themselves in Gordon’s “Self Portrait of You + Me (Jackie Smiling II),” or in Mungo Thomson’s “Untitled (Time),” a looped video of covers from every issue of Time magazine produced before the artwork’s creation in 2010. The piece plows through history in two minutes and 30 seconds, and each loop draws the eye to images that were news makers at the time. Photographer Taryn Simon‘s pieces titled “Folder: Abandoned Buildings & Towns” and “Folder: Mirrors” recall the days of card catalogs, when groups of related images were stored for reference. Simon shot piles of clippings from the New York Public Library’s picture collection, an archive that may or may not survive the digital revolution. Many have forgotten that such collections exist. Throughout the exhibition, each artist explores the half-life of an image. The conclusions—whether thought-provoking, devastating, or liberating—are fascinating.

By Elizabeth Varnell

 

Pictured: Douglas Gordon’s “Self Portrait of You + Me (Jackie smiling II)” (detail)
© Studio lost but found / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

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