Salim Green's new on- and off-site commission for SculptureCenter continues his engagement with "Dark Forest Theory,” a speculative idea that interplanetary civilizations hide from each other for self-preservation in order to prevent open conflict for resources. The theory assumes that extraterrestrials are out there, and tries to explain why they haven't revealed themselves to Earth yet. Using this concept as a model for relational politics and for Black experience, Green's work assumes the metaphorical position of hiding – from surveillance, from the anxieties of others, from attempted domination, from the state, from overreaching publicity and visibility. His art is a meta-commentary on working methods, but also takes those conditions and circumstances as its content, asking what artistic media, forms, images, and interventions should be used to talk about hiding out, or about partial disclosure.
For this iteration of the project, Green has dispersed an experimental "publication" made with a semi-anonymous group of collaborators across SculptureCenter's institutional spaces and to locations throughout New York and the United States, offering hyper-contextual, intimate readings of his work within and without art spaces.
Use the map to locate the project.