'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1964.556]', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1930.84a]', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1930.85]', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1965.80]', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1930.83] - #3', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1934.489]', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1961.635]', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1962.356]', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - no accession number] - #2', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
'Bowing to Every Buddha [Art Institute of Chicago - 1995.274] - with guard', C-print, 45x28 inches, 2008
Bowing to Every Buddha
2008–ongoing — c-prints - dimensions variable
A continuing performance in which I bow to every Buddha on display in every museum I visit, which I began in New York in 2006 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work questions the claims of the museological exhibitionary order as it relates to cultural contexts, the didactic description of such contexts, their ultimate exclusion from the life of the owned object, and the institutional paradoxical pretense of authenticity. Photography assisted by Ariane Nelson
Lee Henderson