The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York is currently hosting "Father Country I Do Love You," a multimedia installation by artist Taryn Simon that explores the labyrinthine world of American espionage and national trauma through photographs, videos, texts, and objects. Running through March 14, 2027, the exhibition transforms the museum’s iconic spiral ramp into a three-dimensional investigative display reminiscent of a conspiracy theorist’s corkboard.
Simon’s project begins with a personal anecdote about rebuilding a replica of intelligence officer Jim Thompson’s Bangkok living room with her father when she was nine years old. Thompson, a multifaceted figure—spy, entrepreneur, architect, and antiquities smuggler—disappeared mysteriously in Malaysia in 1967. This enigmatic backstory sets the tone for the exhibition’s probing into stories of espionage, government secrecy, and unresolved histories connected to American power.
Central to the installation is Simon’s effort to chart a complex narrative through the figure of a retired federal agent—referred to as Agent X—whose identity remains anonymous. Simon said she met the agent in Maryland in 2017, and his accounts form an undercurrent throughout the show. Presented in a detached, documentary style, Agent X recounts significant events spanning several decades, including the 1990 arrest of Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, the 1996 TWA Flight 800 explosion, the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the 2002 Washington sniper shootings.
Each episode is paired with curated photographs and physical artifacts, inviting viewers to piece together fragmentary evidence into a broader view of American statecraft and its shadowy operations. For example, the 1998 embassy attack section includes images of survivors and victims, along with personal testimony and photographs, capturing the complexity of trauma beyond official accounts.
The exhibition also delves into more contentious and ambiguous episodes, such as the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Simon features the case of Robert Davis, a retired Black schoolteacher who was beaten by police while the FBI investigated the incident internally. Simon presents a poignant portrait of Davis, who suffers from dementia, captured watching footage of his own assault. The artist accompanies this with interviews and videos of Davis’s life after the event, raising questions about institutional accountability and memory.
Throughout the installation, Simon maintains a deliberately neutral tone, offering no explicit judgments on the events or figures depicted. This approach encourages audiences to engage critically with themes of power, secrecy, and the unpredictable intersections of history and personal experience.
“Father Country I Do Love You” blurs the boundaries between documented fact and narrative conjecture, leaving viewers with the impression that America’s history is a patchwork of coincidences, hidden motives, and unresolved mysteries. The Guggenheim’s spiraling architecture amplifies this effect, turning Simon’s decades-long research into an immersive investigation that unfolds both visually and intellectually.