WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2019 CATALOG
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Alexandra Bell
Born 1983 in Chicago, IL; lives in Brooklyn, New York
Trained in journalism, Alexandra Bell’s work examines the narrative systems of culturally constructed worlds. Through a process of investigative journalism, Bell looks at the representation of minorities in mass media. She deploys tactics of disruption to reveal the way in which language, and specifically the codes of reportage, determine the popular perception of official history. How are systems of inferiority and superiority present in modern mass media? Works by Bell suggest that the codified language of “race” systemically predetermines inequality and enables social hierarchies. By acknowledging that this is a culturally learned behavior embedded within the way we communicate, Bell proposes that the first way to undo this is by knowing how to identify it.
The news headlines and articles that are the subject of her recent series, Counternarratives, all have at least one thing in common: they are classifying of their subjects and perpetuate problematic racial and gendered stereotypes. Bell’s entry into these headlines is often a false narrative, racist stereotypical comparatives, false equivalencies, or simply through an omission. While the articles used in this series, (A Teenager With a Problem; Olympic Threat; Hate Crime; Charlottesville) come from The New York Times and foreground flaws in mainstream reportage, what is paramount, is the responsibility of the reader to engage critically. For Bell, those who consume media also have a moral obligation to “see.” The headlines selected for this series first go through an exacting edit, whereby titles, text, layout and photo placement are interrupted to reveal latent failings in journalistic objectivity. Her revisions are made transparent through a final diptych format in which one panel bears the marks of her edit through the presence of redactions, highlighting and annotations— and another which depicts her alternative.
A similar approach is applied to No Humans Involved: After Sylvia Wynter, which focuses on the Central Park Jogger case. The title cites an open letter from 1992 by the writer and cultural theorist, in which Wynter calls attention to the “logic of classification” at play in the acronym N.H.I. (No Humans Involved), a term once used by public officials in Los Angeles to refer to minorities. In the text, Wynters refers to author Ralph Ellison’s use of the term “inner eyes” referring to subjective understanding. Bell’s decision to select older headlines rather than those from current media suggests what is not a passing media trend, but a systemic condition. Her refusal to accept the “fixed” published form holds power to account. — Lola Kramer