Participating artists: Willie Birch, Amy Chan, Nicole Cherubini, Yun-Fei Ji, Kostas Kiritsis, Marc Lepson, Laura Nova, Ho Tam, and Maria Yoon

Guest Curator: Erin Donnelly

A termed used by public historians, “a usable past” suggests how contemporary conditions can be interpreted by drawing on history and the past. Revisiting historical events, personal stories, and moments in popular culture, 10 artists take the long view and counter today’s politics made convenient by historical amnesia and blind spots.

Appropriate to a rearview image, A Usable Past features work made by alumni of Henry Street Settlement’s artist-in-residence program: Evident of a culture lost to Hurricane Katrina, Willie Birch’s portraits (2000) capture the fleeting gestures of New Orleans’ denizens. Inspired by 19th century wallpaper, Amy Chan combines the natural wonders of the “New World” with fast food drive-throughs and ranch houses.

Nicole Cherubini’s elaborate ceramic vessels hark back to antiquity, such as an amphora equated with a timely metaphor, the Fall of Rome. Yun-Fei Ji’s etchings reference classical Chinese landscape painting while bearing a critical relationship to Mao’s “cultural revolution.” In Kostas Kiritsis’ installations tabula rasa, the reliability of documents comes into question as the artist converts his own library into unreadable books. Reframed as history paintings, Marc Lepson’s prints originated as cell phone pictures of New York Times above-the-fold images of the latest global events. In her Playing Dead video stills, Laura Nova uses Hollywood films to look at death in the popular imagination. Ho Tam’s photography and video work draws on found and original footage to explore personal as well as political histories. Maria Yoon offers spoonfuls of raw building materials such as dirt, sand, stone, brick, and wood in a new outdoor project conceived specifically for the exhibition.