In a new installation at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, artist Taryn Simon transforms the iconic snail-shaped rotunda into a functioning marble run to explore themes of memory, power, and unpredictability. Visitors to the museum’s Central Park location can now activate a wooden cabinet on the rotunda’s top floor, releasing colourful plastic balls that spiral down a covered track encircling hundreds of photographs and exhibits before collecting at the base.
The installation serves as a central element of Simon’s latest exhibition, titled *Father Country I Do Love You*, which marks the first major solo show by a female photographer in the Guggenheim Rotunda. The exhibition opened recently and will continue through March 14, 2027.
Born in New York in 1975, Simon is widely recognized for her award-winning photo-essays exhibited internationally. This new project centers on the life and career of a U.S. federal agent, reflecting the artist’s personal connection to her father, who worked as an agent before operating an amusement arcade in New York.
The exhibition delves into the wide-reaching impact of the federal agent’s work, illustrating how his actions and inactions reverberated through various global incidents and personal tragedies. According to the museum, the agent functioned as an intermediary who bore witness to events both significant and mundane, gathering evidence that others would piece into broader narratives.
Simon’s portrayal highlights the complexities and contradictions of his role. The agent’s experiences encompassed a range of circumstances, from espionage and entrapments to political scandals, mass violence, and criminal investigations, touching lives and nations beyond his immediate knowledge. The artist reflects that, following her father's diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease, she realized she would likely never fully understand his story.
The exhibition navigates themes of anxiety, survival, empathy, and play, providing a nuanced look at democracy, memory, and the consequences tied to individual decisions. The museum describes the work as casting a “shaky spotlight” on the fragile interplay between violence and grace, control and monotony, and responsibility amid routine. It suggests these often conflicting elements coexist inseparably within human experience, underscoring the intricate layers that define personal and historical memory.
*Father Country I Do Love You* invites visitors to contemplate the ripple effects of unseen contributions to history, emphasizing how extraordinary events intertwine with everyday lives in ways that are both difficult to separate and impossible to ignore.